Self-Justifying Functions

Within institutions there are functions that gradually cease to serve the purpose for which they were created and instead persist merely to ensure their own continuation. They justify themselves through form, repetition or symbolic weight, even when they no longer contribute tangible value to the organisational mission.

The most persistent form of fragility is the one that presents itself as untouchable.

Philip Selznick, in Leadership in Administration (1957), described how organisations may crystallise routines that detach from their original purpose and evolve into ends in themselves. Michael Power, in The Audit Society (1997), extended this critique by demonstrating how functions of oversight and verification multiply in order to legitimise their own necessity, creating rituals of accountability that generate more formality than substance. David Graeber, in The Utopia of Rules (2015), brought the analysis into the contemporary realm, showing how modern bureaucracies produce self-sustaining tasks, functions that endure largely because few are prepared to question their utility.

The outcome is paradoxical. Internally, such functions consume resources, obstruct adaptation and generate redundancy. Externally, they project an appearance of stability and legitimacy, when in reality they reveal an inability to renew themselves. Rather than reinforcing resilience, they perpetuate obsolescence, albeit under the guise of indispensability.

The most persistent form of fragility is the one that presents itself as untouchable.