MBAs in management lead to lower employee pay, study finds https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mba-degree-management-lower-worker-pay-study/
The key is right there: " managers started viewing workers not as stakeholders in the corporation but rather as sources of costs to be reduced," - it's repeated so often that a lot of people act as if it is a given truth, that businesses exist for the sole purpose of increasing profits for shareholders. What if, instead, we thought of businesses as something that we endeavor to sustain for not ONLY delivering profits, but also to endure, and to provide work (a decent living). There will still always be a fight over the balance of what is good for profit vs. what is good for the workforce and sustainability of the company, but you would think that we would have arrived at a more equitable model by now that takes into consideration that workers ARE stakeholders to a degree, and that sustainability is just as important as short-term profits. :-(
WE can think of it this way and it makes pretty good sense to us. But the stakeholders with actual MONEY (shareholders) in the enterprise won't want to hear it. And will fight all the way. And tell you without THEM there is no corporation. You "would think we would have arrived at a more equitable model by now," as you said, but in many, many cases, we haven't. Quite the opposite. I get no pleasure from this fact, I assure you. None whatsoever. But there you have it.
@Acolyte The business utopia you envision could happen someday, I suppose, though I doubt if any save the very youngest reading this might still be alive if / when it does. The only way I see for it to be accomplished is iron-clad legislation. And NOBODY holding elective office will EVER vote for that. It's voting oneself out of office. I'm truly sorry to have to write this, but it's my firm belief - formed during 30 years of business experience, significant reading - and quite a few business courses in College and Uni. For whatever all that is worth. I do not write this to try to win an argument. I'd LOVE to be wrong as hell. Unfortunately, I don't think so.
There have been several articles in recent years about the balance between short term profit and long term growth and sustainability. I keep hoping that as generations pass out of the workforce, new thought models will emerge. Although, I understand that as an absolute bottom line, at the most survivalist level, a company will do what it needs to do to preserve itself above its employees. My point was merely that "preserving itself" is a goal (probably) actually best suited for a more holistic approach to business itself.
I hope so, too. And, as things are now, I think you are wise to measure the time in generations - although, at some point, (dire?) necessity may be the mother of acceleration.
Read Collins… amazing research and writings on management and an emphasis on short term versus long term practices and differences. Years ago read a fascinating article on manufacturing that placed the blame on a lot of the original downfall of American manufacturing… on the rise of the MBA…
