Behavior of People in Power

People who have the highest positions in corporate America are considered as individuals that hold the seat of power. They are refereed to as such because of the amount of resources that they possess as well as their capability to control it. In relation to this, they also have the authority to command other people as they act as superiors to many employees that obtain their source of living from working in their companies. Being the case, there behaviors are often the topic of public scrutiny.

People in power behave differently in corporate America. There are cases wherein some of these people tend to abuse the power that they have. The main issue about the behavior of those powerful people in corporate America is in the way they deal with their workers. Corporate managers have been tougher towards there employees in the recent decades. Such kind of action could be attributed to the fact that foreign competition has dramatically increased, which makes business operations even harder to deal with.

As such, millions of American workers, regardless of the type of job that they have may it be white-collar or blue-collar and despite of their sex and age are experiencing wage stagnation as well as worsening case of health and pension benefits. Furthermore, workers are pressured by the management to work harder and faster (Greenhouse, 2008). This kind of condition is observable in large and leading American corporations. A good example of this is Wal-Mart. For some time now, Wal-Mart has been facing numerous allegations and lawsuits with regards to their illegal treatment of their employees.

The topic of establishing a labor union for Wal-Mart employees has also been the topic of numerous debates. An example of such maltreatment is when some of its workers complain about the indignity and danger of being locked inside their stores at night. There is one incident wherein a supervisor and his worker that is suffering from food poising were locked inside the store, which made it impossible for him to take his worker to the hospital (Greenhouse, 2008). Being layed off is one of the hardest thing that an employee can go through especially if he or she is the breadwinner of the family.

However, some corporate managers tend to this insensitively like what RadioShack did to 400 of its workers in its headquarters as Forth Worth, Texas. The management fired its workers through e-mail by stating: “The workforce reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated” (Greenhouse, 2008). Based upon the poll conducted by Business Week (2000), almost three-quarters of the American public believes that business, which includes huge corporations is already gaining a whole deal of power in the various aspects of people’s lives.

Some Americans also look at corporations as the villain in terms of the demands of various managements towards their workers that made them overworked and stressed out. In line with this, many Americans also feel that they are not getting and enjoying the fair share of riches that these corporations are earning. This is due to the fact that average wages and benefits have only exceeded inflation by a meager amount of 7. 6%, while productivity has increase by 17. 9%. Moreover, many citizens that belong to the middle-class are pointing out the widening gap between the rich and the poor (Business Week, 2000).

The discussions above show that the tremendous amounts of power that corporate America has as well as its great influence over the lives of other people. However, this power has also affected the behavior of some of those who possess authority in these corporations. They have utilized it for their own advantage at the expense of other people’s welfare. Those people who deserve utmost importance like the corporations’ employees are instead place in a very disadvantageous position. References Business Week. (2000). Too Much Corporate Power?

Retrieved September 23, 2008, from http://www. businessweek. com/2000/00_37/b3698001. htm. Greenhouse, S. (2008). Has Corporate America Turned Callous Toward its Workers? Retrieved September 23, 2008, from http://tpmcafe. talkingpointsmemo. com/2008/06/30/ has_corporate_america_turned_c/. http://tpmcafe. talkingpointsmemo. com/2008/06/30/has_corporate_america_turned_c/ http://knowledge. wpcarey. asu. edu/article. cfm? articleid=1008 http://www. businessweek. com/2000/00_37/b3698001. htm http://jimgentil. blogspot. com/2007