The Rise of Executive Power
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2013
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the battle over rewards at work, workers grew accustomed to winning a healthy share of the spoils during the 1960s and 1970s - and to being accorded high status. Since the 1980s, however, the power of executives has grown and is now reflected in their own much higher financial rewards and enhanced esteem. What explains this shift in power - and will it last?
Michael Blastland asks why workers have appeared to be so weak as bosses have redressed the balance of power at work so strikingly in their own favour. Laws curbing trade union power, for example, so often cited as the explanation can, though, only be part of the reason. Investors - both owners and shareholders - have also lost out financially in relative terms as executives have grown wealthier and stronger.
So what explains the power of the executive class? Are there other trends at work which help explain the relative position of executives and workers? And if both workers and investors want to increase their share of the rewards how might they go about it?
Michael Blastland asks how likely investors and workers are to succeed in any fight to restore their influence when they face such a formidable and entrenched group of executives. He speaks to representatives of all three groups and also considers what business history and the experience of other economies teach us about the likely outcome of the struggle.
Producer Simon Coates.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Thank you for downloading this edition of Analysis from the BBC. |
| 0:40.3 | In this programme Michael Blasland asks who holds power in the economy and whether they're using or abusing it. |
| 0:48.0 | Remember Mike Yarwood, Impressionist on TV, did a great Robin Day, the BBC interviewer, and a fine Vic Feather, a union |
| 0:57.0 | leader. |
| 0:58.0 | Know much about Vic Feather? |
| 0:59.6 | We did then. |
| 1:00.6 | Mr Feather, what do you think of the present strike? |
| 1:04.0 | Well, of course, we realize that this strike is going on. |
| 1:07.0 | We realize it's been going on a long time, and we also realize it's causing a lot of inconvenience to the public and this is why we want |
| 1:16.8 | to end it as soon as possible and that's why we're having another meeting a week on Tuesday. |
| 1:22.0 | Union leaders were familiar enough for family entertainment on prime time TV. |
| 1:28.0 | Powerful enough, as with another leader, Jack Jones, to warrant hours, and I do mean hours of conference coverage which was anything |
| 1:35.8 | but entertaining. |
| 1:36.8 | Can we give some word of support for the Labour government and encourage it along the lines of Composite B. |
| 1:44.7 | Composite B, what a rallying cry, eh? |
... |
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