I find it frustrating when lower management say that they agree with you that something needs streamlining or even just doing in order to stop wasting a whole raft of peoples time on a regular basis then actively put up the roadblocks themselves. Often this is done for personal reasons of ambition which are detrimental to the corporate structure they aim to rise in. These are often the poisonous cultures one hopes to avoid.

Occasionally, just occasionally, you come across a manager who sees the bigger picture. These are the ones who are prepared to sacrifice tomorrow's milestone in order to make the final project milestone on time. Even when they are going to take some flack from above to do this. I take my hat of to this kind of manager as they are the sort who often shield their team with a metaphorical umbrella to avoid any splatter from the metaphorical fan as long as the team are getting the job done.