One reason, but to be fair MBA types can have the same lack of empathy. Their interactions can turn into (actually kind one of the things the author complains about) treating people purely as capital and relationships as means to financial end.
You’re absolutely right. There’s understanding how people tick, then there’s feeling it too.
Everyone I've talked to about their experience in MBA programs say that it feels designed to teach you to think of people as if they are somewhere between cattle and plants, mere generators of productivity metrics for spreadsheets and dashboards. The only perspective is quantitative, and it's largely based on arbitrary, misleading metrics.
Partner went to a top10 MBA program. This was not the takeaway or remotely close to the summary. Very popular meme though.
It's true they've begun to "reform" the curriculum to be more human-centered across different (but far from all) departments, but it's akin to the clumsily-tacked-on ethics classes in scientific/technical tracks: if you take them seriously, they're valuable, but even among the cohort of students there is little respect for them and are usually considered mere drudgery if not an afterthought.
Interestingly enough I read the above comment and assumed it was speaking about the MBA types having the lack of empathy, not the other way around. The purely transactional relationship (often one sided) is one of my biggest issues with them.
Are you kidding me? "MBA-types" have the same problem. How many frausdsters in prison have an MBA? It's a lot.