Peter F. Drucker Boxed Set (8 Books) (The Drucker Library)

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The Job as Property Right

IN EVERY DEVELOPED NON-COMMUNIST country, jobs are rapidly turning into a kind of property. The mechanism differs from culture to culture; the results are very much the same.

In Japan there is lifetime employment for the permanent (that is, primarily, male) employee in government and large businesses. This means, in effect, that short of bankruptcy the business is run primarily for the employee, whose right to the job has precedence over outside creditors and legal owners alike.

In Europe, increasingly, employees cannot be laid off; they have to be bought out with redundancy payments. In a few countries, ...