Modern Management Method: Fear of Retaliation

July 6, 2026

Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.

I don’t think of governments are being founts of management wisdom. But Politico’s write up “Tech Industry Grapples with Trump’s AI about-Faces” could change my mind.

The write up says:

… the arrival of powerful new AI models from Anthropic and OpenAI caused the White House to clamp down this month on the firms’ ability to release their most advanced products, for fear that bad actors might use them to unleash cyberattacks. The shift to new AI controls has been chaotic and imprecise — leaving the American AI industry in limbo at the same time that its Chinese competitors are gaining ground. The unpredictability was on display again Friday when the Trump administration partially rescinded its export ban on Anthropic’s most advanced artificial intelligence model — de-escalating a confrontation that has caused confusion across the American AI industry.

Flip flops can destabilize certain processes. Humans and systems have a bias toward repeatability. Discard that, and uncertainty thrives. Toss in a bit of doubt and pop that hot pocket in the microwave. What does one get? Fear? That is a possibility.

Thanks, MidJourney. Good enough.

However, the high level flip top has an impact on one’s competition. Instead of a stable progression, once gets the random behavior of an amped up day trader. The cited Politico article is focused on the political milieu of the current administration.

I want to consider how the flip flopping is affecting AI innovators, operating largely with the benign oversight of the Chinese Communist Party. Instead of the cadence of the slow march of a French Foreign Legion unit, we have what might be compared to startling some squirrels beneath a chestnut tree. The squirrels scurry off. The AI creatures head back to their labs.

My view is that flip flops make it clear that the US technology strategy is unpredictable, possibly chaotic. Consequently the Chinese tactic of providing relatively easy access to Chinese developed AI technology seems stable. Alibaba is motoring along. Contrast that with Microsoft’s pull back from OpenAI and the tactic of putting Copilot in Notepad. Alibaba seems to be stable. Microsoft appears as unstable.

What I am suggesting is that flip flops from the top of the management pyramid are cascading down through the hierarchy. What’s okay today may not be okay tomorrow. It is not surprising that AI firms sign circular deals with one another. At least there is some measure of perceived stability if the BAIT (big AI tech) companies are interwoven with one another. The downside of the links may be a slowing of the innovation that has characterized some US companies.

In addition to providing good news to Chinese AI developers and creating a desire to interlink via circular deals some of America’s largest AI outfits, there is a third consequence of flip flops. Management does not manage. Thus, fear becomes an inhibitor of actions and in the case of technology companies innovation.

I would like to see a non-dinobaby tackle the consequences of management by fear. I think the policies of Meta certainly are chaotic and fear inducing. I suppose I could dig up other examples as well. I would suggest that those studying to be leaders pay attention to how fear can eliminate less direct management methods. What do organizations manifest when they are based on management via fear? What are the characteristics of the fear-skilled manager?

I am not sure that I would enjoy working in this type of environment.

Stephen E Arnold, July 6, 2026

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under AI, Management, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.