The age of the ‘soulless’ corporation: how corporations have lost their people-centric orientations

Management students in "B" schools over the last 60 years have been taught that 'people-centric' management brings out the best in corporate performance. Many of the management classics have been based upon people-centric management theories and philosophies. These include the works of Max Weber, Elton Mayo, Henry Murray, Abraham Maslow, Rensis Likert, William Reddin, Warren Bennis, Peter Drucker, Kenneth Boulding, Henry Fayol, Mary Parker Follet, Fred Emery and Eric Twist, Douglas McGregor, Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch, Joan Woodward, Charles Perrow, Ralph Kilmann, Edgar Schein, William Ouchi, Henry Mintzberg, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jr, Roseabeth Moss Kanter, and of course more contemporary authors like Steven Covey and Peter Senge.

The advent of the 'soulless' corporation has not only thrown a Century of management thought in the bin, but lit a fire and burned all the books. Many corporations today have no resemblance to what is taught in 'B' schools today.

What is the 'soulless' corporation?

A 'soulless' corporation is one that has lost its heart. It has no moral, ethical, intellectual, creative, or even spiritual substance. People are not valued as human beings. The corporation is rule-based with no decision making discretion left to those who work within it, as many corporations just open and maintain repetitive shop fronts in shopping centres. Creativity and innovation are viewed as being subversive to the corporation's ends. Employees are penalized rather than rewarded for being creative. Corporations with remote management are just workplaces governed by computerised systems and procedures designed to control and maximize profits.

Personal conformity is the trait valued today in 'soulless' corporations. Mission statements are empty of spiritual, passion, and meaning. They are repetitive just slogans which resemble the preambles of other corporations. This is the age of the ESG playbook.

These are some of the traits of the 'soulless' corporation that brings widespread technology alienation to their respective workforces. People are seen as necessary human cogs in corporate wheels just like Charlie Chaplin in his 1936 movie Modern Times. The outsourcing of call centres in the 2000s to places like India are now being replaced by AI.

Employees motivations are now left to external mechanisms. Employees work for salaries in order to dine out, and take holidays. The extent of their intrinsic motivation is now left to planning for these events. This the new form of motivation. Thus, the intrinsic traits of loyalty, goodwill, working for personal self-achievement, and being part of a team within a corporation are leaving work scenes of today.

Work that is alienating is the norm today.

How did 'soulless' corporations develop?

The 'soulless' corporation did not just create itself overnight. 'Soulless' corporations have developed through the culmination and fusion of megatrends that changed the whole notion of what a corporation really is.

Large conglomerates now dominate production, supply chains, retail and service industries that make up whole economies today. These corporations are often transnational and bigger than many national economies. The space that family proprietorships, businesses, and even nationally owned public companies occupied have been squeezed out of the business-scape.

Most people today interact with conglomerates, rather than small businesses, even down to purchasing their morning coffees. Family traditions and craftmanship that made the best products and brands have been swallowed up by conglomerates. Its very hard to find family businesses and family brands anyone. 'Soulless' corporations have taken over most of these icons today.

Another factor that aided the development of 'soulless' corporations is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) which replaced affirmative action programs over the last decade. DEI is a core component of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) frameworks which have become crucial in funds management over the decade. DEI has replaced to concept of meritocracy, which has become redundant with the help of AI management systems.

The best and brightest are no longer required in highly rigid management system-based organizations. DEI and the automation of management systems has grown in tandem.