But I don't think there's a huge gap between "what is most effective" and "what is most effective at making him money."
Well ... OK ... I can think of examples when that gap is huge, so scratch that.
The point is ... in the example of choosing between (a) hiring managers even though it costs more and is less effective, or (b) not hiring managers, saving that money, and being more productive too -- why would the capitalist choose to maintain a management layer?
Because it's difficult to have aligned interests among all the people working in an enterprise. Having sufficiently and appropriately aligned interests is the starting point for a non-hierarchical structure. People coming into jobs don't have this mindset. For reasons good and evil, people consider themselves fungible wrt to their employment, so a layered structure with managers, etc., accommodates that.
And, in practice, you see an approximation. Promoting developers to become developer-managers, developer-managers to become product-managers, etc., is (aside from structural needs) a way of recognizing that people have shown that they do have significant aligned interests and an increase in salary and rank is the quid pro quo.
However, that appears to support the premise that having a management structure actually is more effective.
Imagine how hard it would be to run a company if 200 people had to agree on every little decision. Ever been on any kind of committee? If everything had to go through committee, very few businesses could prosper.
So having a management layer lets the owner select, over time, those people that he wants to share in the decision making. And that seems like a solid benefit of maintaining a management layer.
Whereas Chomsky/Noble seemed to be saying (if I understood them correctly) that the management layer was actually a detriment, but that business owners chose it to maintain class separation.
This is a concern that's very often raised. I get the point, but there are two things to keep in mind:
Having aligned interests makes this tractable. When someone raises this concern they typically posit participants who don't have aligned interests.
Secondly, we aren't very good at seeing our day-to-day experience that suggests this is doable. We don't credit our participation in consensus-based groups, nor do we recognize instances of compromising or actions that are not self-interested.
> why would the capitalist choose to maintain a management layer?
Humans are pattern recognition machines. Many successful companies have tons of managers: why try out this weird alternate strategy I have no experience with when so many companies work hierarchically? Starting a startup has so much risk involved, and risk needs managed. New management strategies are incredibly risky.
I don't think the cooperative model being possible even enters into most people's minds.
But I don't think there's a huge gap between "what is most effective" and "what is most effective at making him money."
Well ... OK ... I can think of examples when that gap is huge, so scratch that.
The point is ... in the example of choosing between (a) hiring managers even though it costs more and is less effective, or (b) not hiring managers, saving that money, and being more productive too -- why would the capitalist choose to maintain a management layer?