Seth Godin has a great posting on "sheepwalking."

It reminds me of a conversation with my husband on how employees in large institutions follow policy, not because it’s the right thing to do for the customer (in fact, often, it’s not) but because it’s more expedient, causes less work for the internal organization, and requires no backbone.

I reminded him that I couldn’t think of any organizations, the size of 200 employees or greater, that have enough backbone to do what’s right for the customer, independent of policy.  The political consequences are too great.

My apologies for being cynical. I hope someone comes up with examples to prove me wrong.