4 ms·
After a large organization is structured, it's objective will shift to the survival of the organization itself when the original (legitimate) objective is made
by hcarvalhoalves 5y ago
After a large organization is structured, it's objective will shift to the survival of the organization itself when the original (legitimate) objective is made irrelevant by internal or external factors ("winning", or a change in the context that required the objective in the first place).
I would expect an adage about this to already exist – if it doesn't, I'm claiming it. :)
- bartread 5y agoThis very topic is covered in Eric Hoffer's book, "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements". He's talking more about religious and political movements than companies but, with the way many companies today want people to believe in their mission, there are strong parallels.
- cabalamat 5y ago> it's objective will shift to the survival of the organization itself when the original (legitimate) objective is made irrelevant by internal or external factors Yes, and also the furtherance of the careers of the top people.
- hef19898 5y agoAnd the less actual stuff said organization has to do, the worse it gets.
- ClumsyPilot 5y agoThe better is gets - more time for career manoeuvring
- hef19898 5y agoAnd without the need of any domain knowledge or any other skills!
- cabalamat 5y agoPournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people": First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration. Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc. -- https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html
- hef19898 5y agoI never worked directly for an official bureaucracy, just indirectly. I have to say so, you find the same kind of people in all organizations being large enough to need more than one pizza to feed everyone.
- Nasrudith 5y agoThe March of Dimes is an interesting counter-example. They went from a Polio cause to a premature infant one post-Salk.
- ComodoHacker 5y agoCan we apply this to Google-sized megacorps, when the original goal 'make money' has been overachieved?
- kbelder 5y agoPournelle's "Iron law of bureaucracy" comes close... In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals that the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.