Corporate Cults: The Insidious Lure of the All-Consuming Organization

Book Description

Sports facilities, laundry services, cappuccino bars. A ready-made set of companions. A purpose in life. Sometimes work is such a great place to be, you don't even want to leave--not in the evening, not on weekends, and especially not on vacations!

All of this is fantastic for your company, but seriously bad for you, says organizational expert Dave Arnott. These perks aren't merely altruistic gestures on the part of your company. Instead, they're consciously designed to induce you to devote more and more of your time, talent, and emotional allegiance to the corporation--at the expense of your private life, your family, and your community.

And rest assured, says Arnott, corporate cultism is not an isolated phenomenon or a far-fetched concept. Consider the top three factors that Fortune magazine calls the hallmarks of a great place to work: sense of purpose, inspiring leadership, and knockout facilities. Now read the uncannily similar characteristics that define a cult: devotion, charismatic leadership, and separation from community

Both startling expos and insightful self-help manual, CORPORATE CULTS gives you a clear picture of this deeply rooted, pernicious problem. It exposes the cycle of manipulation and dependency that is making unhealthy, "cultish" behavior a commonplace way of life for millions of people.

* You'll study the symptoms of "encultedness," including crushingly long hours, few (or no) friends outside the workplace, emotional attitudes about a job--and a dangerous blurring of "who I am" with "what I do." * You'll learn about companies like Southwest Airlines, 3M, and Microsoft that forge the narrowly focused traits of their carefully selected employees into fiercely loyal and cultish organizations. * You'll read the real-life stories of people whose jobs have become their lives--such as the USAA Insurance employee so enamored of his "compound's" fine facilities that he wholeheartedly proclaimed: "You become a part of this place, and it becomes everything you're about." * You'll take an eye-opening 20-question corporate cult test that accurately measures your own level of cultedness. * And--best yet--you'll discover practical strategies for escaping the lure of the corporate cult...and restoring a healthier balance to your life.

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It's not farfetched, and it's definitely not funny. The fact is that many corporations use the same manipulating and controlling tactics that cults do. In cult-like cultures, employees pledge unconditional obedience to their leaders. They willingly relinquish their precious vacation days. They even subsume their identities, investing increasing amounts of time and energy in the corporation, at the expense of family and community. This eye-opening book provides a fascinating -- if startling -- expose of the unhealthy, all-consuming power that cultish organizations wield over their employees. And it includes behind-the-scenes profiles of cultish cultures, including those from well-known and celebrated companies. But it's not just businesses playing this insidious game. As Corporate Cults explains, many employees willingly allow themselves to become "enculted." In a misplaced quest for emotional support and self-esteem, they pledge their deep commitment to an organization -- a commitment that will never be returned. Corporate Cults makes the impassioned argument that people should place more value on who they are and less on what they do. Studiously researched yet accessibly written, the book also reveals practical tips for recognizing the symptoms of cult-like companies and behaviors -- and for escaping their pernicious clutches. For the millions of people who are happier at work than at home -- or for those who chafe at the intrusion of the all-consuming company on their private lives -- Corporate Cults uncovers a provocative new way to understand the problem. And, better yet, it offers practical strategies for restoring a healthier, more normal balance to their lives.

Customer Reviews:

Thought provoking, but flawed & overly pessimistic.......2005-05-29

This book correctly identifies such companies as Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, and USAA Insurance as corporate cults. However, these are extreme examples. The all-consuming organization is not as prevalent as Arnott would have us believe. Some of his arguments are flawed. The theme throughout the book is that "Who I am" should not be defined as "What I do." What? Arnott believes that the two should be mutually exclusive. The can't be, and aren't. If "what you do" is not part of "who you are," then what does define "who you are?" Think of whenever you meet someone new. Inevitably, the question that will come up early in your conversation with that person will be either "what kind of work do you do?" or "where do you work?" For everyone, not just members of corporate cults, what you do for a living is part of your identity, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Arnot makes his case for a theory called "Competitive Advantage Selection Model," in which he classifies workers into either "collection of specialists," people who are valued by their employer for "what they do," or "specialist collections," people who are valued for "who they are." Corporate cults are "specialist collections," people who find all of their emotional needs met by the company they work for, and as a result are cut off from family and community. "Collection of Specialists" employees, since they are valued for "what they do" and not for "who they are," are involved in family and community, because they don't get their emotional needs met a work. Arnott states that members of highly skilled professions, such as doctors and lawyers, work for a "collection of specialists." Apparently, Arnott does not know very many doctors or lawyers. There are probably no other professions where what the person does for a living is more a part of their identity than these professions. Doctors and lawyers are also among the most driven people, and spend much more time at work that most people do. Arnott's argument that people in collection of specialist organizations have more time for family and community would not apply to most people in medicine or law. Ask a lawyer or doctor's family members: most of them would tell you that they don't see much of their lawyer or doctor family member because he or she is always at work.

To Arnott's credit, this book is written in easy to understand language. It does not read like a textbook or an academic journal. While the book is thought provoking and brings up good points for discussion, Arnott's theories are flawed and his view of corporate America overly pessimistic.

"What I can do for you....".......2000-12-31

The image of the tattoo on the man's head was a little radical for me, and I have to say that it took a while to even pick this book up. I'm very glad I did, however. I noticed that a previous reviewer (or two) became very defensive in their explanation of what a wonderful situation it is to belong to a corporate cult. Like the frog, enjoying the warm water, but slowly boiled after gradual temperature increase, you poor people never even saw it coming. Of course the company provides everything you could possibly need. Of course they reward you for five, ten and fifteen years perfect attendance. Why ever leave the property, when you have a place to eat, take your children, exercise (and yes, even sleep). The joke on the "team" I worked was that we only went home to change clothes. That could be addressed as well, with lockers in the fitness center. Eventually, your entire life is with the company, and this is the danger. Work needs to stay at work, and home at home. When the lines are blurred, I guarantee your life will fall apart. Depend upon it. You may have met your spouse there, take your kids to daycare there, have breakfast and lunch with all your friends there, but at some point, you will realize the high price you've paid. They are taking care of business, not you. They really do not care about you at all. When you retire after 40 years of service while holding your pencil set engraved with the corporate emblem, the question I want you to ask yourself is this: Were the trinkets and certificates worth it? Are you a better person for sacrificing your whole life to show your loyalty and thankfulness? Did all your bowing and scraping pay off? Have you realized your full potential at the expense of your marriage, your children and your sanity (...Although they did come through on hospitalization costs after your nervous breakdown.)? Did you make the right decision?

jealous wannabe.......2000-10-22

This is written by someone who has obviously never felt the thrill of being successful and satisfied in a job. Corporations need to provide environments where individuals can be the best they can be, while advancing their own personal as well as the corporation's goals. This guy would have us all working in cubicles with institutional green on the walls, and 10 minute pee breaks at scheduled intervals. Professor of Management? My corporation ain't gonna consult with him.

You say that as if it were a bad thing.......2000-08-29

The cover of this book doesn't really seem to go with the content. The author obviously wants to worry people, to make them aware that Western culture's idea of you=your job is a bad thing. And I agree. This isn't a fault that corporate America has imposed on the world; this is the market adapting to existing societal conditions. People don't live in the same house or same neighborhood all their lives, so they don't develop relationships with their neighbors. Churches are having trouble finding and keeping members. Society values work over these things, so it isn't too surprising when employers begin to fill the needs that are not being met in the workers' personal lives. I, personally, would love to work for an employer who actually cared about my well-being and valued my hard work enough to supply a gym, child care, visiting massage therapists, etc. The author's cause-and-effect theory on this phenomena seems backwards from the reality of life.

I owe my soul to the company store.......2000-06-21

What if the organization that you worked for found a way to provide you with all of your human needs, including your meals, social companionship, growth, and even personal meaning? Before you sign up, you might want to heed Dave Arnott's warning that you could be walking into a cult.

I found Arnott's treatment of corporate life to be somewhat biased by his thesis that organizations, particularly those labeled as "great places to work," operate like intentionally manipulative cults. The book takes a number of organizational innovations, such as wellness centers and other on-site conveniences designed to make life easier for employees, and spins them into an evil spider's web designed to trap employees into the organizational version of a cult.

While the book provides a very thorough description of the major elements of a cult and how these elements exist to some degree in a number of organizations, it downplays the need for organizations to offer incentives, such as providing on-site day care, wellness centers and dining facilities, in order to attract and retain highly talented employees.

In the end, however, the book does challenge the reader to question the potential downside of organizations who provide such lavish incentives to keep people on their payrolls. Is there a danger that organizations could go too far in their competition for the best and brightest employees?

Book Description

This text seeks to overcome an imbalance in traditional consumer behavior texts by incorporating biological, sociological, and anthropological theories into the core of the work. The aim is to provide a challenging and interesting book which addresses important issues such as time, space and consumption; consuming needs and values, semiotics, identity, the body, eating disorders and drug-taking. The text looks at consuming behavior in the context of general changes in society through adopting a historical perspective. It seeks to adopt a neutral view of consuming behavior rather than the more traditional adoption of the producers' perspective, and to look at the contemporary issues affecting consuming behavior in today's world.

Consuming Desire: Sexual Science and the Emergence of a Culture of Abundance 1871-1914

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Consuming Desire: Sexual Science and the Emergence of a Culture of Abundance 1871-1914
Lawrence Birken
Manufacturer: Cornell Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Sex | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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CONSUMING BEHAVIOUR
Desmond Dr J
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OV75JY

Book Description

This book of essays by eminent scholars from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and US addresses globalization and international competitiveness. It includes discussions of market power, competition policy and the effects of foreign trade, globalization and the labour market, economic integration and regional policy cooperation, trade and communications, economic growth, and the diffusion of technology.

Book Description

This accessible and timely book provides a comprehensive overview of how to measure biodiversity. The diversity of life on earth inspires fundamental ecological questions concerning the abundance of species and their distribution over space and time. The rapid loss of this diversity, primarily due to the impact of humanity, makes the need for effective ways of measuring biological diversity more important than ever.As the successor to the author 's influential Ecological Diversity and its Measurement, this book has been completely rewritten to reflect the explosion of interest in biodiversity in the last fifteen years. The book highlights new developments, including innovative approaches to measuring taxonomic distinctness and estimating species richness, and evaluates these alongside traditional methods such as species abundance distributions, and diversity and evenness statistics.Measuring Biological Diversity assumes no specialist mathematical knowledge and includes worked examples and links to web-based software. It will be essential reading for all students, researchers, and managers who need to measure biological diversity.

Customer Reviews:

a little pricey, but a great introductory book.......2005-10-04

This book is a fast and somewhat light read. However, it also covers a lot of territory very quickly. It gives a lot of good "jumping off" points throughout the text for further reading on topics, by citing key studies. This book covers many measures likely unfamiliar to most researchers, and provides feedback on strengths and weaknesses of most. While you will not be well-versed in a particular area of analysis, you will be much more prepared to decide on which area to focus, and how to become well-versed after reading this book. Highly recommended for those looking for an overview and starting point for studying biological diversity.

Ants: Standard Methods for Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity

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Ants: Standard Methods for Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity
Jonathan D. Majer, Leeanne E. Alonso, And Ted R. Schultz Donat Agosti
Manufacturer: Smithsonian Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1560988851

Book Description

Numbering more than nine thousand described species, ants rank among the most abundant and widespread of insect groups—the collective weight of ants in tropical forests and grasslands may constitute as much as 10 to 15 percent of the animal biomass. Written by thirty leading ant biologists, this comprehensive book describes procedures for surveying the diversity of ground-dwelling ants. It introduces a standardized protocol for collecting ant samples in any part of the world and for conducting repeated sampling over time, which enables researchers to analyze global and long-term patterns. Covering aspects of ant ecology and taxonomy, species identification, specimen preparation, and sources of sampling equipment, this book provides the necessary foundation for readers from a wide range of backgrounds.

Measuring Plant Diversity: Lessons from the Field

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Measuring Plant Diversity: Lessons from the Field
Thomas J. Stohlgren
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0195172337

Book Description

Ecologists interested in assessing landscapes and ecosystems must measure biomass, cover, and the density or frequency of various key species. Recently, sampling designs for measuring species richness and diversity, patterns of plant diversity, species-environment relationships, and species distributions have become fine-grained, as it has become increasingly important to accurately map and assess rare species for conservation. This book lays out the range of current methods for mapping and measuring species diversity, for field ecologists, resource managers, conservation biologist, and students, as a tool kit for future measurements of plant diversity.

MEASURING MONIT AMPHIBIANS PB (Biological Diversity Handbook)

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A "must have" resource
Best Source on the Subject

MEASURING MONIT AMPHIBIANS PB (Biological Diversity Handbook)
Heyer Wr
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 1560982845

Customer Reviews:

A "must have" resource.......2005-01-09

No amphibian researcher should be without this resource. This book has been an indispensable tool, and I am sure it will continue to be for quite some time. Large chunks of my dissertation research were designed using this book, and I recommend it to all new grad students interested in working on herp-related projects.

Each chapter is written by one or more of the field's leading experts. They share their knowledge freely and point the reader towards the development of repeatable projects that provide reliable data. Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity represents a major step forward in the field of amphibian research.

Best Source on the Subject.......1999-12-08

Excellent source for both students and professionals on monitoring for amphibians.

Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity: Standard Methods for Mammals (Biodiversity Handbook)

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Measuring Mammals, the difinitive work.

Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity: Standard Methods for Mammals (Biodiversity Handbook)
Don E. Wilson , F. Russell Cole , James D. Nichils , Rasanayagam Rudran , and Mercedes S. Foster
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Outdoors & Nature | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

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ASIN: 1560986379

Customer Reviews:

Measuring Mammals, the difinitive work........2000-10-05

I am a mammalogist new to the field. I designed my first investigation, a mammalian bioinventory of a park in Costa Rica in 1999. The Wilson book was extremely helpful, and I cited it no less than 10 times in my permit application. I reccommend this publication to any persons hoping to work with mammals or currently employed sampling mammal diversity.

On mammalian taphonomy, taxonomic diversity, and measuring subsistence data in zooarcheology.: An article from: American Antiquity

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On mammalian taphonomy, taxonomic diversity, and measuring subsistence data in zooarcheology.: An article from: American Antiquity
Dave N. Schmitt , and Karen D. Lupo
Manufacturer: Society for American Archaeology
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Antiquity, published by Society for American Archaeology on July 1, 1995. The length of the article is 8127 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: This paper examines the application of mammalian taxonomic diversity measures in the analysis of human subsistence. Employing qualitative and quantitative taphonomic analyses on archaeofaunas recovered from a sheltered Fremont site in Utah, numerous small-and medium-sized animal bones (especially Leporidae) are identified as nonhuman accumulations. Measures of taxonomic diversity for the shelter's entire assemblage suggest that the inhabitants practiced a generalized, broad-spectrum subsistence strategy. Omitting the nonhuman accumulations and calculating similar measures on bones interpreted as human refuse produce a different portrait of subsistence practices. Using this investigation as a case study, mammalian faunal assemblages from six additional Fremont assemblages are examined to further demonstrate that subsistence inferences based on diversity measures should be approached with caution. We demonstrate that measures of taxonomic diversity are valuable tools but should be used in concert with analyses of taphonomic agents. Furthermore, rather than employing only those bones identified to species, we emphasize that specimens identified to taxonomic genera may offer adequate resolution in examining prehistoric diet breadth.

Citation Details
Title: On mammalian taphonomy, taxonomic diversity, and measuring subsistence data in zooarcheology.
Author: Dave N. Schmitt
Publication: American Antiquity (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 1995
Publisher: Society for American Archaeology
Volume: v60 Issue: n3 Page: p496(19)

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Investigations into the potential of measuring biodiversity in Maine's forests with forest inventory and analysis (FIA) data (Technical bulletin / Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station))

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Investigations into the potential of measuring biodiversity in Maine's forests with forest inventory and analysis (FIA) data (Technical bulletin / Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station))
Thomas G Allen
Manufacturer: Dept. of Resource Economics and Policy, University of Maine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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