Yes. If you’re a middle manager you’re typically getting directives from on–high that you have to implement indirectly by pushing buttons and pulling levers whi

Yes. If you’re a middle manager you’re typically getting directives from on–high that you have to implement indirectly by pushing buttons and pulling levers which themselves are pushing buttons or pulling levers. Picture driving some sort of vehicle remotely. There's a slight delay to everything, right? You turn, and the vehicle turns a few seconds later. By the time you see an object on the horizon you’re marginally closer to it. And you know this all so you build in certain factors to change response time. But there's still a lag. And now picture driving the vehicle by telling the remote operator how to react. There's now two levels of lag, and depending on how you communicate, two more chances for mis–communication. It’s why bottom–up communications get to be so bad in large organizations. The classic production line “the product is a piece of shit” transmutes, through absolutely normal and routine communications softening and filtering, into “our product brings things to life through its fertilization qualities.” And conversely, the top–down message gets filtered and manipulated by each layer of management. It’s also why escalation culture becomes a thing in large organizations. IBM (in the 1990s, can't speak for today) had a notorious escalation culture: if I didn't do a thing you wanted me to do, and was in a different organization, you’d “escalate” up to some middle manager or executive somewhere who had enough pull to scare my manager into doing something, regardless of the business value or need. The executive doesn't particularly care, he or she just wants the issue off their pile, and it makes them feel good that they're doing something to help their product area. Every organization is susceptible to this as it grows. It’s human nature.