This is a problem in many businesses and I believe stems from the near universal idea that a business should maximise shareholder value ahead of value generated for other stakeholders (customers, employees, the community). This is justified by the mistaken idea that shareholders are the only stakeholders who are exposed to any risk in the enterprise.

Too many people have experienced (either directly, or having seen it happen to people they know) a company saying 'we value loyalty' at the interview and then forcing redundancy on employees at the first sign of difficulty.