Is it Time for Mutiny?

In one mutiny, during a pretty significant re-org/layoffs, part of our organization had been sold to another (perceived to be inferior) company - the majority of the organization (that hadn't been laid off) - was just happy to still have a job, but a select group of technical employees decided (under the direction of a strong ring leader) - that they would not go to the other company. The ringleader was able to get five or six key technical employees to mutiny with him, and that would have been sufficient to jeopardize ongoing operations. His demands were met, and they were able to stay with initial company. No retribution ever occurred, and they had several successful years as employees.

Another attempt at clear-cut mutiny that I've seen, was a technical leader who was not fond of his manager, reach out to a competing organization (In a clear cut Red/Blue scenario) in the company, and volunteered to "take all his employees over" to that organization. The manager, for whatever reason, forwarded the email to the technical leader's manager, and that technical leader was then terminated the next morning for "insubordination." - Over the next two to three months every single member of that team resigned their jobs in protest, causing disruption for the next several quarters at the company. Mutiny both failed, and caused great disruption to the company.

The OP article is pretty good - it captures pretty much all of the elements that make for mutiny, and the circumstances in which it can be successful, and how it takes place.

That single strategic factor makes stories of mutinies dramatically interesting, but it also leaves me puzzled (even after reading the article at hbr.org) as to why the author of the article at hbr.org expects his book or his article to shed much light on situations in which all parties have recourse at any time to a judical system with a strong centuries-old commitment to the preservation of the rights of property and its duly appointed "agents" (i.e., the managers of the corporation).

ADDED. Well, yeah, for a group of employees with a bad boss to go over the boss's head to try to get the boss removed has some resemblance to a mutiny on a ship, but why rely on this rather tenuous connection between mutinies on wooden ships and "modern employee mutinies"? Why not directly study cases when in this day and age employees tried to get their boss removed? Because reading about mutinies on wooden ships is more fun? Because it makes for drama that can be converted into page views?

ADDED. Another huge difference is that for an employee to leave the ship during the voyage means being stranded 1000s of miles from civilization, which is a much bigger deal than walking away from unvested options or the chance of a pension.

Also, a mutiny gathered steam inboard a ship because poor management of ship and resources was life threatening. A lot of folks in a poorly managed company still live a comfortable lifestyle and take home a large paycheck (cough Yahoo! engineers pre-Mayer) so have little incentive to join a mutiny which might jeopardize that.