It's worse than that. A cargo cult, at least, observes something they desire and tries to recreate the environment they assume created that desired outcome. B

It's worse than that. A cargo cult, at least, observes something they desire and tries to recreate the environment they assume created that desired outcome. But IT management observes nothing positive from open offices. Only because IT at other companies are going open office, they feel they must follow suit, because if they don't, they'll be seen by other IT fashionistas as being "out of fashion" -- damn the torpedoes. Perhaps the better matching myth is the Emperor's New Clothes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes