Organizations prioritize survival over their founding missions.
Unattributed. The researched versions are Michels's iron law of oligarchy and Selznick's institutional embodiment, both of which supply the mechanism this adage asserts.
In practice
- A committee set up to oversee a two-year building project is still meeting quarterly in its eleventh year, on a remit nobody voted to widen.
- A campaigning charity whose cause is won reorganises around a new cause rather than closing, and every member believes this is the right decision.