Structured for continual cost increases

Answer #7 to the question: Why are college costs soaring?

When we put someone on a pedestal, we respect, admire, and perhaps envy, that person. We perceive the individual as more powerful, capable and resourceful than ourselves. We look up to that person and may seek to become like him or her someday. In the meantime, we expect that someone to solve their own problems without our help. We safely assume there's no way we could play at their level or take control of a situation involving that person.

Counseling psychologists have many ways to describe the relationship between the person put on a pedestal and the one looking up when problems are not getting solved. The pair of individuals are a combination of:

• idealized and demonized
• overpowering and powerless
• self reliant and morbidly dependent
• condescending and self effacing
• superior and inferior
• distancing and rejected
• aggressive and passive
• abusive and persecuted

There is a kind of organizational structure built out of these relationship patterns called "bureaucratic hierarchies". They consist of many layers of management to be lower than and looking up at. They create structures for people to be the underling without getting criticized or terminated for being powerless, inferior, passive, etc. People in these kinds of relationships are in no mood to solve problems together. It's inconceivable there could be a collaboration to successfully save money, lower costs and become more efficient. Most people believe those issues should be handled by higher ups. They're convinced they are not in a position of power or authority to take charge of big problems like that.

Most colleges and universities are structured as bureaucratic hierarchies. They contain layers of management from the president at the top down to the part time faculty at the bottom. Everyone except the top person is in a position to pass the buck, hide behind their job description and expect higher ups to solve the problems. Solutions that require teamwork, cooperation and intense communication across levels get stuck in committee. Everyone makes excuses for dropping the ball, neglecting responsibilities and failing to follow through. Bureaucratic hierarchies are structured to produce continual cost increases.