White Collar by C. Wright Mills — Read

There is no doubt that managers of big business have replaced captains of industry as the ostensibly central figures in modern capitalism. They are the economic elite of the new society; they are the men who have the most of whatever there is to have; the men in charge of things and of other men, who make the large-scale plans. They are the high bosses, the big money, the great say-so. But, in fact, the ‘top' of modern business is complicated: alongside top corporation executives are scattered throngs of owners and, below them, the upper hierarchies of managerial employees.

As modern businesses have become larger, the ownership of any given enterprise has expanded and the power of ‘the owners' in direct operation has declined.* The power of property within plant, firm, and political economy has often become indirect, and works through a host of new agents. The owners of property do not themselves give commands to their workmen: there are too many workmen and not enough concentrated owners. Moreover, even if personal command were technically possible, it is more convenient to hire others for this purpose. Adam Smith, writing even before the ‘proprietor's liability' was limited, asserted: The greater part of the proprietors seldom pretend to understand anything of the business of the company... give themselves no trouble about it, but received contentedly each half-yearly or yearly dividend as the directors think proper to make them.'