My experience of the resource bargain has left me rather cynical. Devolving decisions to the level best capable of making them comes into fashion when it's necessary to cut resources. One there's a surplus, the top levels find that the need for the organization to act as a united entity trumps such concerns.
Whereas of course it ought to be the other way around; higher levels should be the ones taking tough decisions while redeploying a surplus is exactly the source of thing to handle with co-operation at operational levels
One of the issues in many UK business cultures is that "getting in a room and actually talking to each other" seems to violate more taboos than one would ever expect on paper.
In a highly corrupt or deeply incompetent organization, System 1 doesn't or can't or won't fulfill even basic resource management. The importance of informal System 2 interactions (bribes, gossip, temporary cabals, etc.) becomes critical if you even have an organization that is persisting and hasn't already collapsed in on itself. Of course, this incentivizes the "off-books" behavior. I first noticed this when working in (not with, unfortunately) higher-ed schools in trouble, a situation that reminded me of various strongman governments in the Global South. Pity I didn't know Beer then!
My experience of the resource bargain has left me rather cynical. Devolving decisions to the level best capable of making them comes into fashion when it's necessary to cut resources. One there's a surplus, the top levels find that the need for the organization to act as a united entity trumps such concerns.
Whereas of course it ought to be the other way around; higher levels should be the ones taking tough decisions while redeploying a surplus is exactly the source of thing to handle with co-operation at operational levels
One of the issues in many UK business cultures is that "getting in a room and actually talking to each other" seems to violate more taboos than one would ever expect on paper.
In a highly corrupt or deeply incompetent organization, System 1 doesn't or can't or won't fulfill even basic resource management. The importance of informal System 2 interactions (bribes, gossip, temporary cabals, etc.) becomes critical if you even have an organization that is persisting and hasn't already collapsed in on itself. Of course, this incentivizes the "off-books" behavior. I first noticed this when working in (not with, unfortunately) higher-ed schools in trouble, a situation that reminded me of various strongman governments in the Global South. Pity I didn't know Beer then!