Almost as sadly funny as this is, years ago I worked for Unisys Corp. and the CEO at that time made a plea to all the employees to offer suggestions on how to save the company (of course, he really meant save his job, but that's another funny/sad thought). When some employees around me actually believed him and tried, middle-management immediately put a kabosh on that notion. They were there to make sure nothing worked its way up to the CEO...that didn't come solely from them. Oh, yeah, the guy did lose his job the next year or so.