The books Heroz , Gung Ho and One Minute Manager all deal with empowering workers at every level. There are many more books like these too. Empowered workers are the very best. With all of this knowledge it is still amazing to me that upper management of some companies allow bad managers to continue on. A good manager is not a slave driver but a leader. I heartily agree with the above statement that it is very hard to turn a company around when they are doing the wrong thing. The old saying,"The beatings/firings will continue until morale improves" is really true for these bad companies.