Organizations don't lose their way because they're messy—they lose it because their strict rules and reviews force them to change.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
<p>Why Strong Governance Drifts: Translation Drift in Institutional Decision Systems</p> <p></p>
SSRN · 6242879
The Takeaway
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.
From the abstract
<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