It's part of the CEO mentality some of us have been considering for awhile - the CEO is king of his/her own little fiefdom - the company or corporation. The CEO is at the top of the proverbial ziggurat, at the point of greatest power, worship, admiration, leadership, even damn near deification. No one says "no" to the CEO. Because their own jobs and positions and upward mobility is at stake, so they know strategically it's far better for their own self-interest to bow and scrape and serve the CEO ("I like being able to fire people who serve me"
while the CEO is the king, emperor, sultan, master of the universe, and all others are subservient and beholden unto them. The CEO is the one holding the leash(es) and everyone else underneath the CEO in the pecking order knows his/her place is with those leashes around the neck.
NO ONE dares to say no to the CEO. NO ONE tells the CEO anything but "yes, sir" or "yes, ma'am." So the CEO comes to believe in his or her own omnipotence. The whole "masters of the universe" thing in "Barbarians at the Gate" and "Bonfire of the Vanities." And when things don't work out, the CEO has no template for accepting or coping with that. When you're treated like a god, the last thing you're open to is your own fall from the celestial heights.
Edit history
= new reply since forum marked as read
