A third objection argues that employee decision making will be inefficient. In one sense widespread consultation and participation could hinder and delay decision making, thus leading to higher costs. Employee participation is also inefficient in the sense that employees will tend to make decisions for their own benefit rather than for the benefit of the firm. But again, employee par-ticipation need not involve direct democracy in which every employee must be consulted on every decision. A democratic business could adopt a more hierarchical pyramid management structure, as long as the decision makers represented employees. Further, while conflicts can exist between the interests of the firm and the interests of employees, this is a valid objection to employee participation only if such conflicts are more likely to occur than similar con¬flicts between the interests of managers and the interests of the firm. Conflicts of interests can occur under any decision-making structure, but evidence sug¬gests that employees are no more likely to run a business into the ground than are traditional managers. After all, employees only hurt themselves by jeop¬ardizing their jobs if they sacrifice the welfare of the business for their own short-term interests.