Permanently Failing Organizations

Organizations, and the things inside them, that keep underperforming and keep existing. Meyer & Zucker's explanation: the people who depend on something (staff, internal users) care more about keeping it than the owners care about its results.

Source: Meyer & Zucker, Permanently Failing Organizations (1989).

See also: Value Infusion, Organizational Immortality. From How do organizations throw (AI) stuff away?

Mentioned in

Also, IKEA Effect is mentioned in

Also, Structural Inertia is mentioned in

Also, Policy Termination is mentioned in

Also, Subtraction Neglect is mentioned in

Also, Escalation of Commitment is mentioned in

Also, Sunk Cost Fallacy is mentioned in

Also, Status Quo Bias is mentioned in

Also, Organizational Unlearning is mentioned in

Also, Competency Trap is mentioned in

Also, Exploration vs. Exploitation is mentioned in

Also, Core Rigidities is mentioned in

Also, Active Inertia is mentioned in

Also, Value Infusion is mentioned in

Also, Resource Allocation Trap is mentioned in

Also, Collective Belief is mentioned in

Also, Exit Champion is mentioned in

Also, Project Escalation is mentioned in

Also, Advocate Adoption, Not Termination is mentioned in

Also, Organizational Immortality is mentioned in

Also, Planned Abandonment is mentioned in

Also, Endings First is mentioned in

Also, Code as Liability is mentioned in

Also, Hyrum's Law is mentioned in

Also, Deprecation Policy is mentioned in

# Oct 23, 2026
← All posts