OPTIMIZATION WITHOUT RESULTS

In modern organizations, especially in the post-Soviet space, the constant optimization of processes, structures, and costs often fails to lead to sustainable improvements in results. This article analyzes the phenomenon of "optimization without results" as an institutional distortion, in which improvements become symbolic practices of demonstrating activity and meeting expectations, without addressing key parameters: the architecture of power, the distribution of responsibility, and managerial agency. The mechanisms of managerial simulation, the behavioral adaptation of employees, and the historical and cultural roots of this phenomenon in the post-Soviet context are described. An analytical framework for distinguishing between substantive optimization and simulation is proposed, emphasizing the connection between improvements and real responsibility and institutional change.