the.com/department
A box drawn around people so the org can blame a category instead of a person.
means A distinct division within an organization, government, store, or institution, responsible for a particular area of work or activity.
from From French département, 'a dividing up, a portion set apart,' built from départir, 'to divide or distribute.' That verb stacks the prefix de- onto partir, 'to part or share,' which traces back to Latin partire, from pars, 'a part.' So at root a department is simply a piece carved off the whole — a parting of the larger body into manageable shares. The administrative sense bloomed in French and English alongside the rise of bureaucracy, when governments and businesses grew large enough to need their work portioned out into labeled compartments.
- origin
- From French departir, to divide and separate
- silo effect
- Each one quietly hoards info from the others
- store legacy
- Department stores split goods into walkable territories in 1800s
- turf wars
- Budget season turns colleagues into rival nations
department of defense — us government agency with 2.9 million personnel, established 1947
department of education — us cabinet department overseeing k-12 and higher education policy, created 1980
department of health england — uk government department managing nhs and public health policy