Corporate dreams : big business in American democracy from the Great Depression to the great recession / James Hoopes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hoopes, James, 1944-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Corporate culture--United States--History.

Corporate culture.

Business and politics--United States--Case studies.

Business and politics.

Political ethics--United States.

Political ethics.

Leadership--United States--History.

Leadership.

United States--Politics and government--2001-2009.

United States.

United States--Moral conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Public trust in corporations plummeted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, when "Lehman Brothers" and "General Motors" became dirty words for many Americans. In Corporate Dreams, James Hoopes argues that Americans still place too much faith in corporations and, especially, in the idea of "values-based leadership" favored by most CEOs. The danger of corporations, he suggests, lies not just in their economic power, but also in how their confused and undemocratic values are infecting Americans' visions of good governance. Corporate Dreams proposes that Americans need to radically rethink their relationships with big business and the government. Rather than buying into the corporate notion of "values-based leadership," we should view corporate leaders with the same healthy suspicion that our democratic political tradition teaches us to view our political leaders. Unfortunately, the trend is moving the other way. Corporate notions of leadership are invading our democratic political culture when it should be the reverse. To diagnose the cause and find a cure for our toxic attachment to corporate models of leadership, Hoopes goes back to the root of the problem, offering a comprehensive history of corporate culture inAmerica, from the Great Depression to today's Great Recession. Combining a historian's careful eye with an insider's perspective on the business world, this provocative volume tracks changes in government economic policy, changes in public attitudes toward big business, and changes in how corporate executives view themselves. Whether examining the rise of Leadership Development programs or recounting JFK's Pyrrhic victory over U.S. Steel, Hoopes tells a compelling story of how America lost its way, ceding authority to the policies and values of corporate culture. But he also shows us how it's not too late to return to our democratic ideals-and that it's not too late to restore the American dream.

Contents:

The corporate American dream at its height and in its origins

The corporate American dream

Corporate and national character

From public purpose to private profit

Corporations as enemies of the free market

Corporate failure and government fix

Corporate crashes

Managers versus markets

Corporations blow their chance to end the depression

Roosevelt's confused anti-corporatism

The corporation strikes back

The right to manage

Corporations recover their moral authority

Killing the unions softly

Creating Reagan and his voters

What manner of man(ager)?

Masking the arrogance of power

Responsibility versus profit at general motors

Critics of managerial character

JFK's pyrrhic victory over U.S. steel

The corporation in the wilderness again

McNamara and the staffers

The false confidence of the anti-corporatists

Corporate America loses world supremacy

Laying the groundwork for the corporation's cultural comeback

Leadership

Managing by values

Creating the concept of corporate culture

Inventing the leadership development industry

Reagan aids corporations by bashing government

Entrepreneurship

Supply siders versus the big corporation

Reengineering the corporation

George W. Bush, Enron, and the great recession

Can the corporate American dream be saved?.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-86439-8

0-8135-5204-4

OCLC:

777375533