The book brings to the attention the growing culture of job insecurity in the Wall Street. The dream of every competent American is to have the best job as well as the best pay for their services. Such dreams are often shattered by a culture that tends to lean much on the short-term returns rather than long-term aggrandizement. As a result, investment bankers have adopted a culture of constant worker layoff even in times when there is no crisis. In the view of the author, the building culture of the short-term boom as a model of success in the Wall Street is a culture that is affecting many American companies (Ho 34). It is undeniable that the influence of these companies in the Wall Street on the general financial practices is immense. The adoption of misconstrued notion is based on the feeling that employee liquidity could bring the best character among workers and yield optimal output in the short term. The socialization of the investment banker is that of high reward for high risks. As a result, they always strive to take the greatest risks so that they could get the best rewards.
The culture of deal-making and liquidity practices exercised by the Wall Street has become a phenomenon and is reshaping the corporate culture in the way it works (Ho 54). In the view of the author, it is critical to understand that the corporate aspects of the Wall Street often have the direct influence on the corporate culture of companies outside. It is because many of the companies are either linked through deals or are consulting firms to the outside world. The author asserts that the ultimate dream of every investor is often to create the shareholder value. While it is important to have the best shareholder value, the culture and practices used to achieve always lead to crisis and economic slump. The triumphalist mentality is critically affecting the construction of the financial markets as well as the restricting of the American Corporations (Appel 610). The author demonstrates how the culture of constant downsizing and reconstruction has led to the continued and alarming liquidation of job stability and security. It is essential to acknowledge the role of Wall Street bankers in the shaping of the American corporate culture through capitalistic approaches in the financial markets that further lead to an escalation of the crisis. The author asserts that how investment bankers are performing their works at the Wall Street has become the model of the corporate culture and ethic. It shapes the stock market and the types of the workforce and works characters that are acceptable in the corporate quarters. The influence of Wall Street investment bankers is demonstrated in the corporate hiring culture that is now a culmination of short-term booms without certain future. It is essential to note that the firms are often at the nexus. The firms provide financial advisory services to several big corporations throughout the US. As a result, they culturally inflict certain influence on the nature of employment that adds the shareholder value (Ho 57). The firms on the Wall Street are equally involved in the expertise services to major American institutional investors. Such corporate services often pass a phenomenon to the culture of other institutions and how they practice in the financial markets. The ideas driven from the practices of investment bankers is that a company is only efficient if it’s in constant move and restructuring.
In these sentiments, the author insinuates that what Wall Street value is never workers stability but market simultaneity on a constant basis. It has led to several tons of layoffs in the financial sectors as employees are not subjected to a constant feeling of insecurity at the job place through downsizing that is continuous. In her interview with employees from all the levels at the Wall Street, she notes that the financial market globally and in the American corporate sector mimics the practices, personalities, and the egos of the investment bankers in the Wall Street. Such personalities have been so infectious that it determines how the global economies function as well as corporate culture in America. The self-centered and returned-bent practices are aimed at asserting the financial authority on shareholder value to bring confidence in financial investments. In a time of one year, Ho took a reservation for the cultures of recruitment, downsizing, acclimation, and orientation. The recruitment from elite colleges in the US many of which are Ivy-league universities brings to the attention the culture of smartness that has been created by financial institutions within the Wall Street (Ho 252). They employ graduates with superior qualifications thus asserting the culture of superiority. The central to superiority is the belief that several other institutions are often not smarter to sustain the changing financial environment thus must restructure and adopt the cultural values that are standard to those of Wall Street. Such influence comes due to the hiring of the crème de la crème of the American society thereby creating a culture of competitiveness among workers to be able to either get promoted or receive huge bonuses. It is characterized by long hours of work and works pressure to be able to cope with the demanding standards created by the institutions. All these are geared towards achieving the shareholder value (Appel 617). However, such practices are in contravention of the moral, financial blueprints. It results to bad deals that lead to financial busts in the long term. The culture has transformed the stock holding to be the measure of corporate success and value.
Work Cited
Appel, Hannah. "Occupy Wall Street and the economic imagination." Cultural Anthropology 29.4 (2014): 602-625.
Ho, Karen. Liquidated: An ethnography of Wall Street. Duke University Press, (2009): 27-252.
