I think a big factor to this is the mindset of the culture - if it's a "We're in this together" culture, I'm sure the CEO wouldn't mind. The question then beco

I think a big factor to this is the mindset of the culture - if it's a "We're in this together" culture, I'm sure the CEO wouldn't mind. The question then becomes, is it a secretary/manager/ceo complaining about things 'not being fair' or is it simply that no one was ever asked and IT ended up making a decision on their own? Sometimes decisions left unspoken end up causing a kind of solidification by accident. I find the biggest cause is that IT ends up being silo'd off (or being an MSP/corporate branch) so they aren't in touch with the workplace's culture and assume its one of petty ego. Another factor can be that many of these decisions are looked through the eyes of the company's stock and that causes a sort of myopia regarding short-term costs vs long term gain. Both of these end up being nasty feedback cycles and can be impossible to break once it becomes status quo.