The Gervais Principle is worth reading about: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o... Related to the Peter & Dilbert Principles, but darker and told through the lens of the Office.
In a corporate hierarchy are the losers (bottom), clueless (middle), and sociopaths (top).
Losers: Economic losers in that they prefer a fixed monthly paycheck over their fair share for their contribution. Risk-averse. They know they made a bad deal and don't do more than expected. They play social validation games with each other to feel better in order to stand their fate.
Clueless: They believe in the corporate story and work more than they're payed for. They're promoted into middle management where they serve as a buffer between the top management (sociopaths) and the workers (losers). They execute all ideas from top management, from the stupid over the risky to the good. If something succeeds, the sociopaths take the credit. If something fails, the clueless take the blame.
Sociopaths: Nihilists who emotionally broke under the realization that no true values exist in this universe, so they're free to make values and goals up as they like. Those stories are given to the clueless to believe in. In every corporate life cycle exist different sociopaths. In the beginning they're the risk-takers with a vision and the willpower to push something new through. In established companies they kill off new and threatening ideas to protect the successful products. During decline they milk the company for the remaining values, then leave the sinking ship and hand responsibility over to the clueless to let them take the blame.
One important part are the different languages of the three classes. Losers have "game language", the social games they play to validate each other, but the talk and the content are unrelated to reality and don't advance them in the hierarchy. The clueless try to speak like the sociopaths but don't realize that one has to have stakes in the game (i.e. something to lose or something valuable to offer) in order to be taken seriously, so their language is full of empty phrases and threats. The sociopaths' "power talk" is full of hints (without commitments) that are only understood by equals and when they talk about something they have to lose or gain something -- it's about the real things, not the empty phrases the clueless use.
