The archetype of a greedy CEO that looms in the American imagination is a white-shoe knickerbocker type who grew up rich, inherited their role, and sucks the life out of their employees for profit. In this stereotypical storyline, those who are born to succeed, rather than achieving their own success, are less trustworthy than boot-strappers and prone to exploit and abuse subordinates.
But a new study from Henrik Cronqvist of the University of Miami Business School paints a different picture. Cronquist finds that CEOs from working class families are more likely to support less worker-friendly policies than their upper class counterparts. These CEOs with less privileged backgrounds lead companies with more employee lawsuits, more workplace safety violations, and lower satisfaction ratings, across industry type and size. Noblesse oblige, it turns out, may be better than no oblige at all.
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