Industry analysts and some lower-level executives of the company said that Mr. Perlman has been given a mandate: either quickly fix the computer systems business, or sell it.

And again, in both cases, a lower-level executive who was the primary contact for the chief financial officer on many of the transactions in question has agreed to serve as a government witness.

Colin Callender, president of HBO Films, said that he first heard about the screenplay seven years ago when he was a lower-level executive.

One way to do this is to have lower-level executives compete with each other for promotion within the organization.

The ratio declines for lower-level executives, down to one and a half times salary for store managers.

Mr. Stempel asserted that "the entire focus" of G.M. management was on improving customer satisfaction, noting that executives charged with monitoring quality and reliability now report directly to him rather than to lower-level executives.

Mr. Lopez said he had left G.M. because lower-level executives were resisting his campaign to build an innovative auto-assembly plant in his native Basque region of Spain.

Also, some businesses are extending deferred-compensation plans to lower-level executives - stretching the law that limits such plans to highly paid officials.

But when they do not easily flip, lower-level executives in white-collar criminal cases that turn on criminal intent present a problem for prosecutors.

Lehman's shell game didn't come to light until June 2008, when a lower-level executive named Matthew Lee sent a letter to management raising a host of questions about the firm's practices.