Comment by bediger
14 years ago
Let's flip that around: it makes it easier for "those above" in the hierarchy to deceive a whole pile of compartmentalized people into performing useless work, and thereby consuming lots and lots of government money.
14 years ago
Let's flip that around: it makes it easier for "those above" in the hierarchy to deceive a whole pile of compartmentalized people into performing useless work, and thereby consuming lots and lots of government money.
Good point.
Seems like that would inevitably lead to everyone in the organization unable to determine whether or not their contribution was useful. (Short of them actually saving a life at the bottom level.)
With no hope of finding meaning in your job, it would make a 40-year career to retirement a long career indeed.
Why would they do that?
Ever heard of Empire Building? It's a common problem in corporations. Mid-level managers become important by having a lot of underlings. I imagine this would be even more important in compartmentalized areas, as mid-level managers would nominally have no other method to signal their importance to superiors or peers.
I can also think of a situation where a contractor might hire a mid-level manager's husband, wife or child. The mid-level manager would be able to crank up his or her headcount to get the relative a sizeable Christmas "bonus". I've heard tell that this sort of thing actually happens.
The most charitable explanation would be that they have no way even to know if they're doing it, and the tendency of large systems under such conditions is to degrade in efficiency.