The desire for growth is absolutely understandable if it means making higher profits or that employees can even be given a pay rise. The state profits not least from the additional tax revenue with which it can cover its continually increasing spending.
In accord with this, the demand for growth is generally and unthinkingly seen by politicians, economists, managers and businesspeople as a positive development. The limits to growth are consciously ignored and there is no regard given to the risks of growth. We already know from medicine, however, that accelerated growth usually results in death: that’s the definition of cancer.
Unlimited growth is usually fatal.
Nature cannot be used as a justification for unbounded growth either. Plants and living creatures only grow until they are full-grown. The excessive growth of individuals or individual populations eventually ends in chaos because it destroys the ecological balance. Daniel Goeudevert gives a wonderful example of this in his description of the water lily, ‘From antiquity until modern times the water lily has been considered a symbol of innocence, purity and chastity…its fragrant flowers with their petals arranged in a spiral cover everything beneath them with a wonderful mantle…; however, botanists correctly point out that the water lily has heavy nutritional requirements and draws nutrients from the subsoil in such quantities that it threatens to destroy its own habitat.’31
The water lily principle
Hence, the all too widespread belief in growth is not a solution for the problems that lie ahead. Rather, it suppresses them in the naive hope that ‘ploughing on’ will be the right course of action.
The demand for more growth blinds us to the need for drastic change.
2.5 How questionable values affect managers’ attitudes
The questionable values of business are not without an impact on managers in all sectors. We can assume that these values even permanently mould the personal attitudes of many managers and businesspeople.
In this respect, the dubious implicit values of business studies create a questionable framework for managers, one which is characterised by an extremely negative view of humanity.
‘Dark management’
The results of this kind of dark management can be widely seen. The German magazine Focus puts it this way: ‘The figures are frightening. Almost 87 percent of Germans are dissatisfied with their job. Figure of hate number one is their own boss.’32 The magazine Der Spiegel also pays a lot of attention especially to the consequences these figures have, featuring topics such as bullying at work and burnout, and dedicating title pages and lead stories to them.33
Almost 30 years ago in his book Nieten in Nadelstreifen [Lame Ducks in Pinstripes], Günter Ogger was one of the first to point out how widespread dark management in Germany is and the negative effects it has.34 Well-known authors then followed suit: the former car industry manager Daniel Goeudevert and television journalist Ulrich Wickert, who confirmed Ogger’s findings.35 In their book for the American market, Snakes in Suits, When Psychopaths go to Work36, Paul Babiak and Robert Hare demonstrate that this phenomenon is not limited to Germany. It is indeed not surprising that advice books with serious sounding titles have since come out discussing issues such as how to deal with braggers, back-stabbers and tyrants in the office37.
Lame ducks and tyrants as managers
Although I have also had countless experiences in my own career38 similar to those of the authors mentioned above, and can confirm that there are significantly more bad managers around than good ones, the following is not intended to be ‘score-settling’ or to expound more advice for workers who are subject to lousy management.
Sharpening awareness
Following the conviction that many managers are not even aware of how badly they treat their workers, we have shed some light on the backdrop of dark management through our discussion of the dubious values of business and the negative attitudes that are based on it. Now that our eyes have been opened, it is naturally up to the reader to decide whether he or she would like to draw any conclusions from it. If you would prefer – no longer unconsciously, but consciously – to continue down the path of dark management with all its negative attitudes and consequences, be my guest! This book will not help you any further.
To all my other readers I would suggest jettisoning all the negative attitudes we have described and replacing them with positive attitudes.
Anselm Grün, the German Benedictine monk many managers value for his advice, emphasises that management should not spread disquiet and hectic activity, but peace, clarity, calm and pleasure in working.39 If at this point you say, ‘Right, you’ve convinced me. That’s exactly what I do!’, you have understood the message of this book and do not actually need to read any further.
Nevertheless, what you are trying to do is not easy! Striving for a positive attitude seems to me personally to be a very substantial, ongoing challenge. As I said as the outset, the world is full of people who do not care for others’ welfare, who tyrannise and torment them, create anxiety and spread fear. In our personal lives, too, there are people who breed a negative atmosphere and disappoint us. That gets us down! And sometimes we are the ones who trip ourselves up – it’s not always someone else’s fault. Viewed in this way, it would seem sensible to seek out help on the path to a positive attitude, and with it to solidifying a positive view of humanity.
A substantial, ongoing challenge
In my view, the most important exercise here is to identify the constituents of a positive attitude more closely. Of course, every reader needs to carry out this exercise for themselves since attitude is something that is connected to individual personality.
It might be helpful to change levels here: the concept of ‘attitude’, which refers to the personal, individual or even psychological level, corresponds to the concept of ‘value’ on the sociological level. On the one hand, values are more or less attitudes that are ‘shared’ with others; on the other, values shape our attitudes.
In the following list I have attempted to name the values that, in my view, are in harmony with a positive view of humanity. The reader will notice that the ‘greater’ values, such as love, peace and happiness, are not present, yet they are certainly a constant presence in the background.40 As an economist, I do not feel called to take a stance of epic proportions here. With regard to our topic of management and our focus on companies, it seems justified and appropriate to me to limit the range a little more.
Positive values
| Fairness | Reliability | Forward-Lookingness | Trust |
| Honesty | Satisfaction | Sustainability | Passion |
| Appreciation | Connectedness | Fulfilment | |
| Steadiness | Justice | Meaning(fulness) |
On the one hand, this code of values could be expanded further; on the other, the values listed are not free from overlaps. This short list may thus inspire and encourage the reader to add further values. The next step involves making a selection in order to remove subjective overlaps so that only a few values remain, which form a solid and what will now be a consciously chosen basis for your own attitude. Concentrating on a few consciously selected values makes striving for a positive attitude more manageable.
Focusing
After thorough consideration I have decided to make the values of sustainability, appreciation, fulfilment and trust the basis of my own personal attitude. The concept of fairness, which gives this book its subtitle, permeates these four values equally. This