White-collar blues

Charles Heckscher interviewed over 250 middle managers from a wide array of firms, including Honeywell, General Motors, Pitney-Bowes, Dow Chemical, Figgie International, Du Pont, and AT&T. To his surprise, he discovered that, in most cases, managers remained loyal to their firms even after substantial downsizing and, in some instances, brutal layoffs. Yet this loyalty helped neither the managers, who felt increasingly bewildered by changes that made no sense, nor the companies, which, in trying to preserve loyalty, found themselves increasingly avoiding harsh realities. Heckscher points out that for more than half a century, large corporations have struck a bargain with their managers: near-total lifetime security in exchange for near-total subordination of individuals to the corporate will. That bargain, which Heckscher characterizes as paternalistic, has provided comfort to managers and stability to bureaucratic organizations. Most managers would still like to hold on to it. But, according to Heckscher, the more successful companies are moving beyond the paternalistic exchange. He found four organizations that have transformed the old ethic of loyalty into a "professional ethic"