Problem is with this argument is both sides are aruging their group is better. I find whether not you care about outcome usually irrelevant to the title / role.
There's a couple of things going on here:
- Personal ambition. Usually this is about money, especially the higher up the org you are, but it might also be about becoming a better at tech, or keeping a stable job to pay your mortgage.
- Incentives. How the company rewards things it wants. This might be shares, commission, salary, or bonuses. But it's also about how the company measures and manages those things.
- Ethics. What you're willing to do to achieve your goals. Both individually, and at an org level.
It doesn't take long industry to realise that the few people are actually interested in helping orgs make money. This is shown by developers focusing on irrelevant shit all day long, and it's shown by the lack of incentives and rewards that drive the correct behaviour, so all you get is a whole bunch of personal ambition.Of course, some people do, but when faced with a company that allows people to focus on short sighted personal ambition, they'll either fall in-line or move along.