This is what happens in situations where you can't measure an employee's marginal productivity with any reasonable degree of accuracy. You hire based on pedigre

This is what happens in situations where you can't measure an employee's marginal productivity with any reasonable degree of accuracy. You hire based on pedigree and promote based on popularity. Excessive focus on these things implies that no particular measurable skill is actually required to do the job. It's not really "we want to hire people who can use their skills to create the most value for us." It's more of "we control a large source of income, and we're going to share access to it with the people we deem worthy." It's the old way.