Six Sigma and Beyond: Design for Six Sigma, Volume VI

In his writings, John Kenneth Galbraith has argued that the executives of our larger corporations were moved more by a desire to remain secure and expand their influence than a longing to maximize the gain of a faceless, uncaring, avarice-driven, constantly changing body of shareholders. Security is a rare commodity in American business management, and, like atmosphere, it thins out the higher you go. Yet so potent is anxiety that when our security is threatened we may sacrifice our dignity , our better judgment, our friends , even our health to regain it.

Now I am the first one to admit that everyone (me, too) needs a kick in the fanny now and then. But those firms that promote or even permit a rat race mentality can expect, and deservedly so, that their executives will make the securing of their own positions the first order of their business.