Thanks for the rebuttal - I thought it was a resurrected article from the '50s.   Certainly Mr. Cloutier has experience and his words have bearing on the short term turn around or when a company is in crisis mode.    My experience tells me that mindset is great for the short term, not long term sustainability.   Who says employees have to like you?  Mr C. is correct about that.   They do however need to respect you AND want to work for you.   Managing through fear is simply managing for the short term - until they find another job or otherwise exit.    I can't imagine the amount of creativity that would be lost if my employees were not encouraged to participate.   A man's foolish if he thinks he's got all the ideas and can plot the only possible direction all the time.   This style of management is easy, weak, and does nothing to foster real creativity and entrepreneurship in an organization.