The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management

Chapter 6. Eichmann in the Organization

SOME time ago, in his role as a department head of a major mid-western university program, a colleague of mine — Ted — was approached by a member of the university's senate, who offered him the following proposition:

As you know, Ted, the university is in financial difficulty and is projecting an operating deficit for each of the following three years. In response to a request from the president, the Senate Committee on Finance and Administration has met and talked about a number of approaches for coping with the problem. After careful consideration of a variety of alternatives, we have decided that the quickest, most effective, and most realistic way to cope with the problem is to cut back on staff, since, ...