favoring his boss's boss (i.e. the university as a whole) instead of his boss (the math department)
Favoring the "goals" of the organization as an abstraction over the actual punishment/reward structure of the living, breathing, and interacting cogs of the organization.
I've come to look at bureaucracies as parasites on the host organization.
Aligning the goals of the bureaucracy with the goals of the org is actually a very hard, very interesting, and very important problem.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.