Creating and implementing new technologies is what large corporations with vast resources seem to do best. This has been a constant since the start of the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century. Just how beneficial these new technologies are to our lives is debatable though, and worthy of another discussion entirely.
One aspect of corporate life never seems to change – at least not for the better. This would be the the stultifying, pressured conformity which has characterized big business and is well-documented with incredible detail in The Pyramid Climbers by social critic Vance Packard (1914-1996). As one of the leading commentators of the 1950s and 60s, he wrote several books that documented American business and social life with incredible clarity, as if viewed under a microscope.
Of course, The Pyramid Climbers is about exactly that – how climbing the corporate ladder is structured much like that of a pyramid, where overweening ambition, drive, and constant personal sacrifice are absolutely necessary for individuals to start as entry-level employees and climb successive levels to reach upper-level management.
Some of the thoroughly engaging chapters in The Pyramid Climbers are “Men Against The Modern Pyramids” which discusses why there are likely to be a lot of “disgruntled” persons at the various corporate levels when only one person will get a promotion and others who are equally qualified (or maybe more so) do not. Packard’s book is an excellent critique of how the fractious competition encouraged among employees at all corporate levels creates an unhealthy, corrosive atmosphere within a company, specifically and permeates down through society generally.
Another sobering chapter reveals how employee review procedures are often abused, which causes more workplace strife. This is a direct quote from Rensis Likert of The Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, and interviewed by Packard: “The fundamental flaw in current review procedures is that they compel the superior to behave in a threatening, rejecting and ego-deflating manner with a sizable proportion of his staff …” (Pg. 245)
The two above-mentioned chapters are just a couple of the distressing, resentment causing situations that make for compelling study and which in our own era would be considered a hostile work environment (not that conditions in present-day companies are necessarily more agreeable). However, the single most disturbing and revealing statement in The Pyramid Climbers is that (another direct quote) to get ahead an individual: “must adjust readily to the needs of the organization and also makes its essential characteristics an integral part of his own personality.” (Pgs. 107-8)
The above statement makes it quite clear that for an individual to continue climbing to higher levels in the corporation – they are required to sacrifice individuality and much of their life force to accommodate the desires and whims of a corporate master. That’s certainly the way matters appear to this writer. Nonetheless, regardless of the many years, effort, brown-nosing and hard work that has to be expended climbing the company pyramid – the majority will never make it to the sanctity of the executive suite, as The Pyramid Climbers clearly illustrates.
Packard’s book also expresses that at least by the mid-1950s most large, established corporations reserved their most favored positions for Ivy League graduates and rarely picked anyone who tried working their way up from the bottom. If this was mostly true some sixty-odd years ago, it would stand to reason that in 2021 the situation is much the same. After all, corporations have only become more complex as technologies have evolved and therefore, more stratified.
Other chapters discuss how many companies seem to believe that being a yes-man is more important than being very knowledgeable about the products or services the company provides (which would seem to be counter-productive to company interests!) or that many executives tend to suffer from a host of stress-related emotional ailments while trudging up the pyramid (which companies regularly try to conceal). In any event, The Pyramid Climbers is a recommended read for anyone intrigued with what makes the corporate environment tick. It should be noted that one matter that the book doesn’t delve into is how disposable workers are to many companies. This seems to be a more serious issue in our era, where highly paid positions (no matter how well-deserved) are a tempting cost cut for many corporations in the relentless drive for higher short-term profits.
Once again, The Pyramid Climbers is definitely an important read for those concerned about the unhealthy conformity, competition and class separation these corporate environments generate and which filters down to society at large.
