Organizations don't lose their way because they're messy—they lose it because their strict rules and reviews force them to change.
The study finds that 'good' management routines and metrics act as filters that slightly alter a strategy's meaning at every layer of a hierarchy. Over time, these small, rational translations accumulate until the organization is successfully meeting its metrics while heading in a direction that contradicts its original intent.
<p>Why Strong Governance Drifts: Translation Drift in Institutional Decision Systems</p> <p></p>
SSRN · 6242879
<div> This paper develops a theoretical and empirical framework for understanding how institutions drift despite strong governance. </div> <div> <br> </div>This paper explains why organisations drift not despite strong governance, but because of it. Capable institutions frequently experience a quieter form of misalignment: strategic drift without visible failure. The article introduces translation drift, a structural mechanism operating at the level of the decision system through which interpret