Monday, November 26, 2007
The Iron "Law" of Institutions
Tinyrevolution says
But what about nested institutions? Take, for example, a committee chairman who belongs to a committee, a party, a legislative body and a nation. Is her loyalty to the committee, the party, the legislative body or the nation? Or to some superordinate institution? Or to some orthogonal institution? Which institution is the one for which power is optimized? Which institution supplies the context for "failure"?
Good idea, just a bit simplistic.
The Iron Law of Institutions is: the people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution "fail" while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to "succeed" if that requires them to lose power within the institution.I'm not so sure it's a law, but it is certainly a strong tendency. At AT&T, we has met the enemy and it was us.
But what about nested institutions? Take, for example, a committee chairman who belongs to a committee, a party, a legislative body and a nation. Is her loyalty to the committee, the party, the legislative body or the nation? Or to some superordinate institution? Or to some orthogonal institution? Which institution is the one for which power is optimized? Which institution supplies the context for "failure"?
Good idea, just a bit simplistic.
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