The managing class has failed frontline workers

The shrinking of the working-age population in first-world countries means companies will have to work harder to attract prime-age personnel. (Image: Bloomberg)

Bloomberg

Sun, 30 Apr 2023

By Adrian WooldridgeThe management class has done a dismal job of managing frontline personnel. These are the people who make, pack and deliver stuff, deal directly with customers, do the grunt work in hospitals and offices, and are paid a wage rather than a salary: what the Bible calls “hewers of wood and drawers of water".Managers think about companies as hierarchies, with the CEO at the top and the janitor at the bottom.Management theorists agonise about knowledge workers and their fragile egos. A study of how CEOs manage the...

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