Blame avoidance
Name(s):
Shifting responsibility onto others
Buck passing
Nature
Benefits and shortcomings of a project do not accrue until possibly years later, well after the project's originators have passed from the scene. When the shortcomings do become apparent, the incumbent policy makers can justifiably place the blame upon their predecessors.
Incidence
Following severe criticism of the civil service in the UK in 1993, in which government ministers had shifted responsibility onto civil servants for withholding information and misleading Parliament, a code of ethics was proposed by the latter to avoid such accusations.
Narrower
Aggravates
Issue avoidance [in 4 loops]
Counter-dependency [in 2 loops]
Avoidance of reality [in 6 loops]
Avoidance of decision-making [in 33 loops]
Avoidance of negative feedback [in 16 loops]
Conceptual repression of problems [in 5 loops]
Aggravated by
Strategy(ies)
Value(s)
Reference(s)
Type
(F) Fuzzy exceptional problems