Organization Man

1956 bestselling book by William Whyte... A central tenet of the book is that average Americans subscribed to a Collectivist ethic rather than to the prevailing notion of rugged Individualism. He observed that this system led to risk-averse executives who faced no consequences and could expect jobs for life as long as they made no egregious missteps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Organization_Man

see Gervais Principle