It s a profound psychological need. You can t dispense with it. At one point, we projected loyalty onto organizations. Now, we re projecting it onto other people. There can be other loyalties, too.
Software developers are loyal to their product.
They are willing to sacrifice for it. They feel fiercely proud of it. I think software developers should be a clue to management. Through organizational design and other techniques, management has to find ways to build on the natural tendency toward loyalty. What concerns me is whether this shift in loyalty creates an unstable situation for business and for society.