I still recommend the book _Corporate Cults_ by Dave Arnott, which analyzes corporations the same way cults are. And many corporations are indeed very cult-ish in how they behave with their employees.
An editorial description rightly says Arnott's book shows that "many controlling tactics corporations use are similar to those used by well-known religious cults, e.g., charismatic leadership, separation from community, and a demand for unwavering devotion [from employees]. The author's personal experiences with some of these organizations enrich this disturbing analysis of how 'culted companies require employees to pledge unconditional obedience to leaders, subsume their identities, invest all their 'free' time and energy in the corporation, and consider family and community expendable."
And no matter what you think of Daniel Bell, in his _The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism_ there's a great passage:
"In the world of capitalist enterprise, the nominal ethos in the spheres of production and organization is still one of work, delayed gratification, career orientation, devotion to the enterprise. Yet, on the marketing side, the sale of goods, packaged in the glossy images of glamour and sex, promotes a hedonistic way of life.... The consequence of this contradiction ... is that a corporation finds its people acting straight by day and swingers by night."
Americans are more "collectivist" than they'd like to think: Corporations & nation-states & militaries are collectives Americans accept, even proudly love. They're just the wrong kind of collective endeavors. The idea of capitalist individualism is a joke.
-B.
Nick C. Woomer-Deters wrote:
>
> http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/one_bank/
>
> This strikes me as a nice example of where American
corporate management styles are heading -- the
objective seems to be to build morale by encouraging
employees' "self expression." Has anyone written on
the political implications of contemporary American
corporate culture and jargon ( e.g., "core values,"
"team," "associate," "downsizing," "union avoidance")
and so on?