Bernhard and Glantz attribute many workplace problems to a basic conflict between human nature and the structure of modern organizations. Because human beings evolved in small, egalitarian hunter-gatherer bands, most humans have emotional needs that can best be satisfied in small groups that are based on personal reciprocity, sharing, teamwork, and genuine interdependence. In such groups, leadership can be based on acknowledged personal ability, everyone can feel important, and the common goal can weld people together in a way that is both efficient and personally satisfying. The authors see the formal hierarchies of modern organizations, where authority often replaces leadership, as the resurgence of pre-human primate social relationships in which bluffing, threatening, and intimidation played a major role. Numerous and varied examples from the workplace lend the analysis graphic immediacy and authenticity.

Many theories have been advanced to explain such workplace phenomena as endemic dissatisfaction, low productivity, and high absenteeism. Many books have argued that teams, a democratic management style, and employee participation are essential, given an educated work force that doesn't live in fear of being fired. Staying Human in the Organization is the first book to relate these themes to evolutionary biology, the discipline which in recent years has been revolutionizing the behavioral sciences. The result is a new way of thinking about labor relations and organizational development.