I think this happens at the middle management level. Most the upper management exercises of corporate mottos, vision, mission statements, etc. is an abstractio

I think this happens at the middle management level. Most the upper management exercises of corporate mottos, vision, mission statements, etc. is an abstraction too far removed from day to day work to be useful to lower level employees. Maybe it helps them with their planning, but even on that I'm skeptical. Those things have worked for some Japanese companies with a very different culture around collective work, but they don't really work as well applied in the West, IMO. Now at the middle management to immediate supervisor level, there's a huge boost to morale, and I believe ultimately productivity & innovation that happens when you include employees in your own thinking and motivations. It's a lot easier to please someone when you know how they think and why they want certain aspects of a project to go the way they want, and allows you to better predict when it might be appropriate to go off script a little or make a perpendicular suggestion. Otherwise, when you treat a human like a machine, and dissuade them from any bigger picture thinking, you can get all sorts of problems. Micromanagement, malicious compliance, and most importantly: you are isolating them from the natural group dynamics and teamwork that humans do well under.