I suspected that my former employer was not unique in it's organizational misfits and reading your essay confirmed that it was indeed part of a larger picture. Of course. An organization cannot really tolerate indivduality as a basis for their development. Everything must be coordinated -> politics -> bad decisions. After working in a large organization for 8 years I quit, but not before I sent a letter to the man on the top. I conluded that my problems were due to his (bad) descisions:
1. The leader of 130 IT workers was not educated in IT. None of the top leaders were into IT. Not even the lead architect!
2. The economists think of everything as a "factory". Therefore, IT is produced the same way. I call this the "factory-view". If you add more money, more developers you will get this done faster. If you need something, go buy it. It's always better to outsource.
There were other things as well, but these factors may probably be more widespread than I like to think of. Finally I left for a small firm. What a relief!!
1. The leader of 130 IT workers was not educated in IT. None of the top leaders were into IT. Not even the lead architect!
2. The economists think of everything as a "factory". Therefore, IT is produced the same way. I call this the "factory-view". If you add more money, more developers you will get this done faster. If you need something, go buy it. It's always better to outsource.
There were other things as well, but these factors may probably be more widespread than I like to think of. Finally I left for a small firm. What a relief!!