http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Transnational_corps/corp_rules.html
[ See
also the 11 Inherent Rules of Corporate Behavior... ]
Corporate Rules of the Game
by Jerry Mander
The corporate world
is fortified by a complex web of factories,
workers, machinery and money: all dedicated to producing a return
on the investment of owners and stock holders. To reach that goal,
all corporations share similar values and follow similar rules.
Rule #1 - Make
a Buck
Corporations define
success in two basic ways: the growth of assets
and the rate of profit. These goals take precedence over concerns
for the community or nation in which the corporation does business.
There is a strong tension between the corporation's desire for
profits and the demands of workers for a decent wage.
Rule #2 - Be
Aggressive
Successfully climbing
the corporate ladder means being aggressive
and competitive. Colleagues compete fiercely with each other
for promotions; workers are encouraged to compete with each
other through special awards in order to increase productivity
and profits. The Japanese labor-management approach of 'teamwork'
in the plant merely shifts competition from individual workers
to groups of workers. This urge to compete is now seen as basic
human nature.
Rule #3 - Look
After Number One
Decision-making within
a corporation is ruled by the bottom line.
In practice this means the interests of the corporation and the
interests of the community only overlap when it serves the
corporation's purpose. A company may sponsor a baseball team,
donate money to a hospital or underwrite a community orchestra,
but corporate altruism is usually more public relations than
community spirit. The fight to make corporations socially
responsible will always be an uphill battle since corporations
are inherently selfish. Their essential responsibility is to
their own financial survival, not to the welfare of the public.
Rule #4 - Follow
Orders
The organizational
structure of the corporate world is based
on a strict pecking-order. There is a hierarchy of command
and control that extends from the Board of Directors and
Chief Executive Officer down to the lowliest workers at
the bottom. Your place in the pecking-order determines
your power, your rewards and your privileges. Orders flow
from the top down as they do in other large institutions
that use a strict hierarchy, such as the military and the
government. Notions of hierarchy and status within the
corporate world tend to reinforce the idea that inequality
and conformity are natural: the world is made of leaders
and followers and there is little we can do to change this
fact of life.
Rule #5 - Embrace
Technology
The modern corporation
is both a creature and a captive of
technology. Companies are engaged in a restless search for
technological innovation to boost efficiency (i.e., increase
revenue with less labor and capital). Thus all technology
is considered benign and objective. In fact, modern technologies
are biased toward the technocratic world view that produces
them. This view is based on linear thinking and a tendency
to segment and quantify the world. Corporations are so
fascinated by technology, they have no time for non-material
values: Old-growth forests are so many board-feet of lumber;
toxic wastes are subject to cost-benefit analysis; workers
fighting for improved working conditions are threats to
profitability.
Rule #6 - Join
the Crowd
Corporations view the
world as one big market: Social
relationships are defined in terms of buying and selling,
and human activity is seen as a straightforward battle
to gain advantage over your neighbor. The result of this
market vision is that human happiness and satisfaction are
defined in terms of what we buy. Multinational corporations
have been remarkably successful in spreading their attitudes
and values around the globe. Television, advertising and
films carry the corporate market view everywhere, steamrolling
local culture in the process. This growing homogenization
destroys opposition to the 'consumer society,' obliterates
cultural diversity and accelerates the destruction of natural
resources.
Rule #7 - Don't
Look Back
Corporations have no
allegiance to the present because
they are riveted on the future and the need to grow.
This consuming passion effectively removes them from
the day-to-day concerns of the local community. With
their eyes fixed firmly on tomorrow, corporations have
little commitment to solving the mundane problems of
everyday life. Staying flexible in order to be profitable
means multinationals can and do pack up and move at the
drop of a hat. Inside the corporation, life is
highly-structured and geared to the clock. Yet
corporations can be strangely ephemeral. The future
is possibility; the present merely a viewpoint;
and the past irrelevant-this operating principle
undercuts the search for social stability.
Rule #8 - Neutralize
Nature
Corporate activities
and the natural world are fundamentally
at odds. Manufacturing goods to be bought and sold in the
marketplace is essentially a process of transforming raw
materials extracted from nature into commodities. This
exploitation of the environment is ingrained in corporate
behavior: even service and financial corporations depend
indirectly on the conquest of nature. As consumerism spreads
around the globe, the search for raw materials accelerates
and the ravaging of nature quickens. In an attempt to absorb
criticism from environmentalists, multinationals have wrapped
themselves in green rhetoric. Yet any serious attempt to
challenge the underlying consumerist credo is still dismissed
as subversive-which in essence it is.
exerpted from the book
CORPORATIONS
ARE GOING TO GET YOUR MAMA
edited by Kevin Danaher
Common Courage Press
Box 702
Monroe, Maine 04951
phone - 207-525-0900
fax - 207-525-3068
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Controlling Corporations
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Controlling_Corporations/ControllingCorporations.html
Corporations Gonna
Get Mama
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporations/CorpsGonnaGetMama.html
Corporate Watch
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporations/Corporate_watch.html
Transnational Corporations
& the Third World
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Transnational_corps/TNCs_ThirdWorld.html
