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.

The work from home trend was accelerated by the Covid era. Corporations soon found that work from home saved millions of Dollars in rent and other fixed costs. Initially, employees enjoyed this freedom. However, the work from home trend has broken down team cohesiveness and diluted the bonds of corporate cultures built up over decades in traditional office and other work settings. Corporations now look more like nodes of employees (or contractors) working from off-site locations than a team strongly bonded by a corporate culture that gave meaning to the nature of their work.

Finally, a new generation of employees have been 'dumbed down' by a post-secondary education system which no longer teaches critical thinking. Graduates have lost their abilities to solve complex problems, do mental arithmetic, socialize in work groups, and be intrinsically motivated by the mission of their employers. Graduates have become the fodder of corporations who want employees who don't question things.

Out of the above, totalitarian like corporations have emerged where local managers have no leeway in the decisions they make. This we are seeing in the banking industry, where local managers and whole branches are being removed and replaced with AI. Systems have taken over jobs, discretion, and social connections with customers. Even if a customer can find a bank, mobile phone and internet provider shop, any queries from the public will be met with referral to apps. No human based decisions enter into customer interactions. Education is heading this way, as even medicine is.

This is what the 'soulless' corporation looks like.

The new 'soulless' management

Today's management style bares no resemblance to what is taught at "B" schools. This could best be described as Taylor's scientific management on steroids. Stop-watches have been replaced with AI. Such an example would be Amazon's "Pick-Path 2.0". Progress in management though has reverted back to Douglas McGregor's Theory X, where Theory Z has been thrown out the window. Management now resembles Kurt Lewin's 1939 autocratic leadership, only this time by faceless managers. KPIs rule, don't reach them and your out. The workplace now has a stress that hasn't been seen for generations. The workplace is now a major source of health disorders.

With cameras observing workplaces and disguised social credit systems, 'old school' has been replaced by the 'Orwell-school'. Under such conditions the corporation can be nothing but 'soulless'.

There are some aware of this and fighting back. That's another story.