Bad Management Danger Signs

But that division head couldn't get past the idea that someone on his team might earn more than he did.

"There are times when the selfish thing to do isn't the right thing to do," says Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners in Greenwich Conn. "Companies that do that sort of thing are unlikely to stay at the top."

The attitude of the executive in question was pervasive throughout the firm, with the general stance being: We care more about internal considerations, such as hierarchy of pay, than we do about making the right decision for the firm.

Perhaps it shouldn't be any surprise that the stockholders fled en masse.

David Ranson, director of research at Wainwright Economics, says: "Managers who simply hold onto the status quo and miss opportunities to do something good for the shareholders are simply encouraging further flight of capital."

The rest of the auto industry in the upper Midwest seems to have missed the boat for shareholders also. Shares of both General MotorsGM and Ford MotorF, the two big Michigan-based car makers, have declined over the past five years.

A large chunk of the woes in the auto industry are due to factors such as globalization, but nimbler and more open-minded management might have helped the companies deal better with the challenges in the industry.

One result is that employment in the auto sector has sunk steeply, as measured by membership in the United Auto Workers.