Super ordinate goals, intense competition, flat structures, technological advancements, emerging skill-sets, proactive management styles all sound exciting and challenging. But are these the raison d'être forcing the so-called present day professionally qualified business managers to indulge in dicey activities and unethical business practices?

Super ordinate goals, intense competition, flat structures, technological advancements, emerging skill-sets, proactive management styles all sound pretty exciting and challenging. But are these the raison d'être forcing the so-called present day professionally qualified business managers to indulge in dicey activities and unethical business practices? Are these the factors that sometimes build in extreme pressure to perform among business managers, eventually provoking them to behave like mafia¹ managers? Well, it is too early to draw any conclusion. Nevertheless, let's go through the following narrative to appreciate the issue I am raising.

"The other day Robin, my buddy, a management graduate, working as a senior marketing executive with a reputed FMCG, and I were returning home after attending a cultural program. Robin appeared much frustrated, boozed heavily on a roadside bar, and started oozing venom. Robin and team failed to hit the jackpot (special incentive) for super achievers. I was trying to smell (not in the literal sense) Robin's head to make out what was cooking within? So agitated was Robin that he decisively declared, `Come what may, I will fire the shot next time'. Robin's outbursts baffled me as I could comprehend the mafia manager inside speaking for him, not the logic. His make or break kind of reaction was similar to mafia rulings and sounded alarm bells to my ears."