Intentioned Recession: An Ideologically Driven Re-Structuring

Abstract

Viewing broad middle class economic losses from the Great Recession as an accident leads many to imagine that a return to pre-recession policies and practices will restore this group's economic prosperity. Another perspective views these losses as part of a larger pattern of economic and political disenfranchisement directed toward the American middle class. To the extent that those who benefit from an event might be recognized as having a hand in its creation, insight into the values and beliefs held by this recession's beneficiaries may prove useful in designing policy changes needed to stem or reverse the continued enactment of these wider goals. This paper offers that insight: using responses to an original survey administered to faculty at major research universities across the United States in 2008–2009, certain values and beliefs held by academics across many departments and disciplines may be observed. Three interdependent elements pertaining to citizen democracy including population well-being, tolerance of contest and dissent, and citizen controlled majority rule are explored. The flip side of each—support and justification for hierarchy and inequality, intolerance of dissent, and valuing business dominance and power over citizen democracy—are often found in business operations today. Academics in business schools show stronger support for these latter values than do faculty in other fields; as business has emerged as a clear beneficiary from the Great Recession, this ideology may usefully serve as a reverse guide to policy change if greater equality in population well-being, and increased citizen-controlled democracy, are desired.

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Notes

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⁷⁷ The first was mailed with cover letter and stamped return envelopes to faculty in every department at seven major US universities, with faculty names taken from department websites. The second wave consisted of emailed invitations to participate in the survey online, again sent to academics in major research universities, with names and email addresses gleaned from university websites. The third wave was sent to a purchased mailing list from the Academy of Management divisions of Business Policy and Strategy, and International Management, to over-sample business academics. A fourth wave was administered in Australia, excluded from this US-based analysis.

⁷⁸ This rate does raise the concern of non-response bias. Unfortunately, no resources were available for follow-up contact; worse, errors in envelope printing omitted a return address on more than half of the sent envelopes, an error which both decreased the response rate and prevented return-to-sender activity.

⁷⁹ The mean response of each discipline group to each question is statistically tested for difference with all other faculty responses to that question, with an independent samples t-test, comparing that group's mean response to the average or mean responses of all other faculty. The levels at which the answers differ (if they do) by disciplinary group, are indicated with two stars if the differences between the means of that discipline's responses and the responses of the other groups is highly statistically significantly different at the .01 level of analysis, one star if the means are significantly different at the .05 level of analysis, and a tilde mark (∼) if the difference is significant at the .10 level of analysis. Using this guide, it is possible to see for which survey questions business faculty answers differ significantly from the answers of faculty in other disciplines.

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