For a pithy phrase, suitable for power point presentations :), you'll probably have to ask someone who is more into popularized organizational theory. Like people at bizneth schools. If you want to understand the phenom, sociologically, I'd recommend _Moral Mazes_ by Robert Jackall. He shows how the buck always gets passed, why there are scapegoats, and how things like challenger, Columbia, Three-Mile Island, and other crap happens, not just by waving a hand at class society, but by also examining how organizational hierarchies breed patronage systems and a managerial ethos where a
"subordinate must also not circumvent his boss nor ever give the appearance of doing so. He must never contradict his boss's judgment in public. To violate that last admonition is thought to constitute a kind of death wish in business, and one who does so should practice what one executive calls "flexibility drills," an "exercise "where you put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye." On a social level, even though an easy, breezy, first-name informality is the prevalent style of American business...the subordinate must extend to the boss a certain ritual deference,. For instead, he must follow the boss's lead in conversation, must not speak out of turn at meetings, must laugh at his boss's jokes while not making jokes of his own that upstage his boss, must not rib the boss for his foibles. The shrewd subordinate learns to efface himself, so that his boss's face might shine more clearly.
In short, the subordinate must symbolically reinforce at every turn his own subordination and his willing acceptance of the obligations of fealty. <...>"
Robert Jackall, __Moral Mazes_, p. 19.
Also, if you're talking outside the ranks of managerial work, Burawoy's _MAnufacturing Consent_ comes to mind. But it is far more complicated than simple assent to authority.
Kelley