Oh, if only corporate subordination were military style. A fresh Marine recruit knows the names of the five links in the chain of commmand between him and the President; meanwhile, Peter Gibbons has to answer to eight bosses, some of whom he hadn't heard of until they drop by to ask if he got the TPS report memo.
I think it was legitimized by having it happen in pretty much every big company ever. It is the "I made this company (or weaseled by way onto the board / highest layer of management), I'm boss, I don't want to hear from anyone else how I do things because its mine, I have the power, obey me. It comes off as very 3 year old immaturity.
When I say that it's not legitimated, I'm not saying that it's illegitimate philosophically (although I think it is) but that such managers do a poor job of convincing other people that their power is legitimate.
In the military, most people buy in to the rank system. A major component of the abuse inflicted in basic training is to tear someone's ego down and build the person back up again as someone who can take orders. The result is that a lot of them come out of the process genuinely believing that the commanding officer's power is legitimate. In most companies, nothing happens to convince the grunts that the managerial power is legitimate, since most managers are puppet leaders rather than the leaders that the group would pick.
> but that such managers do a poor job of convincing other people that their power is legitimate.
Don't they convince their shareholders? These companies keep making it big even with tremendous overhead of useless management and they seem to do it by pitching investors and locking down markets.
