Resistance to Parasitic Change

In a case-study I was reading on scientific management, it was mentioned in passing that the cost-savings of an efficiency improvement was split three ways: a third of the cost-savings was kept by the company as profit, a third was returned to the workers in increased wages, and a third was passed on to the customer as a price reduction.   It dawned on me that this is not at all the typical arrangement in the current age.

In the current day, virtually all of the cost-savings are pocketed by the company, and the workers and customers are offered no reward for having made the change to the company's benefit.   And I say "virtually all" as a concession to the few and rare occasions in which this might occur - though no example comes readily to mind.

With this in mind, the reason that customers and employees are so resistant to change is that there's nothing in it for them.   In their various roles, people are generally motivated to take action when they perceive a benefit to themselves.  That's not to say individuals are entirely self-serving - as people some some willingness to accept inconvenience and individual effort for the benefit of others - but when the relationship becomes entirely parasitic, with one party constantly demanding accommodations from another for its own benefit while offering nothing in return, even the most charitable individual becomes irritated and disinterested in continuing to be fed upon my an ever-hungry mouth.

People are most sorely neglected in their role as employees, constantly demanded to make changes to their working patterns without compensation because the arrangement will be better for the company.   The word "bonus" is like the word "bigfoot" - a creature allegedly seen by someone else - and salary increases have for over two decades lagged well behind the rate of consumer price inflation.  And yet, corporations speak highly of their "productivity," dollars in revenue per dollar in expense, and take pride in claiming for themselves a greater and greater share of the revenues that employees create.

On the consumer side, customers have experienced steadily diminishing quality of product and service, all in the name of keeping prices low - but there seldom if ever is a return to the customer for accepting less.   The supermarket is a prime example: you cannot find a pint-sized can of anything, as the original 16 ounces was reduced to 14 or 12.5 and customers are being asked to perform the duties of a checkout clerk, scanning and bagging their own purchases.  The cost-savings is not passed along, and the reply that prices are not being increased has been so overused that it is no longer fooling anyone.

It occurs to me that this likely sounds like the ranting of a socialist, but there is some thread of truth that cannot be denied: companies want for themselves ever-increasing profits, and rare is the firm that sets as a goal to keep profits steady, or even accept a small decrease, for the sake of taking better care of their employees or customers.   It is entirely a one-sided relationship - so if customers and employees seem fed up, their reaction is entirely understandable.

And it is likely for this reason that the scientific revolution in management has failed entirely to accomplish its goal of a better and more productive society for all - in that one group have hoarded the rewards of change and improvement to themselves, and the other two groups have largely lost interest in accepting changes and compromises that offer them no benefit, but are entirely parasitic.  There are some broader cultural implications to be considered - the manner in which this sort of parasitism has degraded society in a broader sense - but that is likely a separate topic.

And likely the only way to end this meditation on a positive note is to observe that, in some regards, competition in the marketplace is nudging the relationship back toward a more healthy and sustainable balance, at least insofar as consumers are concerned - as it is becoming necessary for firms that wish to be competitive to consider the customer's experience and their perception of value in the relationship. In terms of the relationship between firms and employees, that will likely remain much neglected while unemployment statistics are unfavorable and employees are disempowered to negotiate for a fair share - but this too is likely to change over time, as it has in the past when there was a greater demand than supply of labor.  Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect the pendulum will ever come to rest.