Riding The Shadow

I am sure the Chinese have a saying for this, but I do not remember what it is. Regardless, of the office politics moves that I've seen, one of the more despicable ones would be riding the shadow. By that I mean a player chooses an authority figure (usually his manager and associated managers) and starts to become a yes-man. That is, he does and forwards precisely what they say. They say jump, he tells others how high it should be. Over time, he moves from being a follower to an apparent leader, borrowing the boss-man's shadow as his own. This creates the illusion that he's actually rather powerful when in reality he's just a crony. Now, this is despicable because it takes cronyism to a whole new level. A regular crony simply obeys the higher ups. A shadow rider usurps that authority and over time turns it into real authority, with most being none the wiser. It is an underhanded way to attain power, and while some may argue that it harms no one, I would say that it harms everyone because they now have a scheming player in a position of power in their organization. Unfortunately, people seem to be either unaware of these moves, somehow internally accept them as legitimate strategies or are rather accepting of power games. Allowing such moves in an organization is precisely what results in bad management, where the people in place aren't there because they wish to be there for the good of the organization, but for the advancement of their own personal power.