erosity must be cultivated constantly, leading to the squandering of resources. This, in turn, must lead to imposing onerous taxes upon the subjects, which then results in hatred for the prince. It is thus better to be a miser; in time, the people will recognize that the prince was in fact generous by refusing to squander resources, thereby avoiding heavy taxation (Machiavelli, 1995, pp. 49-51).
Certainly, Jack Welch could hardly be called generous with his employees. He eventually laid off 170,000 of them, calling it downsizing. Moreover, many employees, especially middle managers, complained that their workload grew exponentially as they were forced to take on the duties of those terminated. He also divested G.E. of several components which were not contributing to the profitability of the corporation. These components were usually sold to other companies, which typically proceeded to downsize them (Tichy and Sherman, 1993, pp. 101-125).
This reputation for being a "miser" was ev
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