The effects of middle managers who doesn't care about their product

Have you ever stopped to wonder what happens when middle managers don't care about their product? The moose just made me (scroll to CNET Whining). Caring about the product might not seem too important when your main objective is manageing people/time/money, but the problem is that the attitude rubs off on the people who has to care to do a good job: The developers.

It's hard to get enthusiastically worked up about doing your best for the product when the manager assigning you couldn't care less. When whatever you're doing is just another task on a long list on their list, it quickly get's just another task on your list. Just something that needs to get done - the quicker, the better. Your sense of accomplishment diminish rapidly when operating in this mode.

I salute the moose in saying that businesses should only employ managers who care about the field they're working in and the products they're working with. Regardless of whether it's in journalism or software development or any other intellectual area.