I always find it fun when you bump into a modern corporate action that matches perfectly a mediaeval, or even older behaviour, and is just merely a rebranded version.
This weeks one is “Coin Hordes”, which were the conscious hiding of deposits of money (often in pots).
It was most frequently connected with the state of the monetary economy at a given time and was often done “In uncertain times of war, when plundering expeditions threatened”
Now, you often find the corporate version of this, which is assigning budget into different areas that are not normally visible, i.e. moving support money into project, project money into capital expenditure etc etc. Its done for exactly the same reasons.
I have yet in my career seen this done for a dishonest reason, and only seen it triggered by senior managers, who due to poor communication at upper levels, have made their own managers respond with “I do not know what the powerful people are doing, but I know I still have basic deliverables to meet, so will do what I can to defend myself and those I have a responsibility for”.
If you’re a very senior manager and you are seeing this in your teams, it’s because your managerial style is such that you trigger a response of uncertainty such as war or plundering. perhaps improve communication so that people have faith in your goals.