Then, management has failed. If the employees, doing their jobs - let's set aside the issue of employees not working - aren't enough for the business to succeed, then management doesn't know how to manage. They don't know how to leverage their employees, how to write job descriptions, how to assign duties, so that the business grows through the natual efforts of its employees.
What you describe - where the business only grows if employees go above and beyond their duties - is improper and exploitative.
Yes, you can say it's improper and exploitive. But let me ask you -- if I can get someone to do a job in the U.S. and he does exactly what he's told and not an inch or a minute or a microgram more -- then why shouldn't I ship that job off to India? Because in India I can get the same thing for about 1/10th the cost.
In regards to management -- particularly middle management -- they can be replaced as well. Top management can also be replaced, just like everyone else. The difference is this: The guys at the bottom get to go broke and scrape by forever. The guys in the middle either become consultants or buy a vender's cart at the local mall to sell stained glass and scented candles. And the guys at the top by an estate near golf courses in Florida.
The age of relying on the corporation as caregiver and provider is over. No more jobs for life. Everyone is in business for themselves and if they can't figure out a way to make themselves invaluable to a company, then they're asking to be fired at the first sign of a slow down or through outsourcing.