I Enjoy your daily musings. This one, as do many, rung true.
The bureaucratic culture does not easily allow for a "let's all pull together" environment when so many of those in charge are constantly empire building.
I watched a documentary the other day discussing a test used to determine the level of psychopath someone may be. It threw out stats of 1% of the population are true psychopaths and only 5% of those are incarcerated -- and they commit 80% of the violent crimes. In the USA that leaves approximately 3,000,000 psychopaths on the streets.
The program showed how many managers -> CEOs had psychopathic tendencies. Foremost among these is the lack of guilt for their actions. You couple that with an environment where getting ahead can be very individualistic and you can see why front-line employees can end up not being respected, thousands of seniors can have their life savings vanish and scores of employees can be replaced. It also stated that a management career was a natural draw for psychopaths.
The system rewards individuals, and those who know how to play the game at hand will be well rewarded. To keep the reward large means that the individual must not allow it to be diluted amongst large numbers - the team can't be recognized.
And yet, everywhere you see how companies state that employees are important, and that the team is the true strength behind success. I think there are two teams in most organizations and only one of them has any say. There are exceptions; typically these are companies with strong founders who have a good moral compass as opposed to those run from the Ivory Tower.
Hopefully everyone finds employment in a company with a culture of respect because every living person deserves respect. I know I work harder when I'm respected and having fun at my job - and my employer benefits from that. It can be win-win.