I think technology has allowed people at the bottom of the pyramid to "own" larger pieces of responsibility within a company, thus allowing them to operate much

I think technology has allowed people at the bottom of the pyramid to "own" larger pieces of responsibility within a company, thus allowing them to operate much more independently. In the past this really wasn't the case. An entire discipline called "Scientific Management" sprung up to explain why workers should be treated almost like animals by management: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management#Taylor.27s_view_of_workers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management#Taylor.27...