The internet has raised a Napster Generation of outlaws who are used to getting what they want right now.These young people will have difficulty adapting to the command structure of the business world and will force employers to give them room for personal initiative from day one.
Most of the people I know who have not adapted to the command structure of the business world are unemployed.
Every decade some guy makes millions assuring us all that "the rules have changed" but they actually do not. Human beings are hierarchical and territorial by nature; this isn't going to change overnight (or even over the course of centuries) no matter how many people tell you it will.
There are sound reasons for having leaders of divisions, departments, etc. Accountability and responsibility would be the best reasons. Morale would be another.
Try submitting your raise or bonus appeal to all of your colleagues. Some of whom will think you do a good job, some of whom will think you do a poor job and some of whom may be surprised to learn that you're in their department.
You are either 1) not going to get the raise because everyone else isn't immediately getting one too, or 2) you will get the smallest raise, relatively speaking, because your reasonable demands will be outpaced by ambitious peers who ask for even more.
Published CEO salaries are an instructive point to illustrate option 2. CEO pay has skyrocketed not because they are greedy, but because they now have readily available benchmarks against which to measure themselves.
All it takes is a couple of guys steering sinking ships (but making stellar pay) for everyone else to say "Well I'm doing a better job than that schmoe, shouldn't *I* get paid more?"
When you and I are retired and golfing in Florida, guys will still be making these hilarious "but it's all different now!" claims. And it won't be. The technology may change, but human nature won't.
See also: Napster Made Me
