Sears had both. The Brennan Brothers ran MontgomeryWard and Sears as brothers, both coasting downhill, just as they did Running the RNC under Bush I and their own Bob Michels. They bet big against Newt and lost in politics.
The Wall Street Journal and business specialty magazines argued for years to get rid of the Brennans. Finally the stockholders got wise and brought in Martinez, who brought in guys at the top with really good ideas. Later Lands End bought Sears and had really good ideas.
In both cases, it was middle management that sabotaged the good ideas.
Middle management and young whiz kids through sheer stupidity also caused Kemper Insurance to go bankrupt. I had a front row seat. In that case, the top executives were on the golf course far too much.
Yeah, it really just depends on what company we are talking about. I went from a being a software engineer, to project manager, to software dev manager to VP of software development. The brightest (and most authentic) people were at the lowest level. The dumbest and most immoral types were at the very top. Lots of sociopaths. The middle level people were stuck b/w the two and just tried to survive the blame shifting coming from the top tier for the most part. I guess that effort to survive could be construed as resistance and it was at times. The perks of being a VP were great but the people I had to work with were awful human beings, true scum of the earth. Paid well, but I hated it. Glad I’m done with that. Give me back my days with staff who spent their days getting things done instead of engaging in office warfare and plots to enhance their bonuses.