In every layer, the truth is altered slightly to make things appear a justifiable amount better than they really are, but because there can be so many layers of indirection in the operation of and adherence to policy, the culture can look really different depending on where you find yourself in the class hierarchy. This is especially true with thinking things through and questioning orders.
Not sure whather that aligns with your thinking, but Jenifer Pahlka has this nice concept of rigidity cascades. What she means is that a process get ever more rigid as it travels down the hierarchy. What may have been a random suggestion at the highest level becomes a “prefered way of doing thing” a level below that and an “unviolable requirement” at the very bottom of the hierarchy.
https://www.eatingpolicy.com/p/understanding-the-cascade-of-rigidity
Yes, I think this is exactly what I am thinking of, but with the implied generality that it applies to all domains, not specifically software as in the article examples, and also with my suggested answers to why it happens not being to avoid responsibility, but rather the closer you are to the bottom of the hierarchy, the more likely you are to be understaffed and overworked in a way that makes it logistically more difficult to spend time thinking about policy, and also to appear more agreeable to management.
Not sure whather that aligns with your thinking, but Jenifer Pahlka has this nice concept of rigidity cascades. What she means is that a process get ever more rigid as it travels down the hierarchy. What may have been a random suggestion at the highest level becomes a “prefered way of doing thing” a level below that and an “unviolable requirement” at the very bottom of the hierarchy. https://www.eatingpolicy.com/p/understanding-the-cascade-of-rigidity
Yes, I think this is exactly what I am thinking of, but with the implied generality that it applies to all domains, not specifically software as in the article examples, and also with my suggested answers to why it happens not being to avoid responsibility, but rather the closer you are to the bottom of the hierarchy, the more likely you are to be understaffed and overworked in a way that makes it logistically more difficult to spend time thinking about policy, and also to appear more agreeable to management.