empire building
Amassing power systematically
Empire building is the practice of expanding one's power, influence, or resources within an organization—often by acquiring more staff, budget, or territory than actually needed.
The term carries negative connotations, suggesting self-aggrandizement over institutional benefit: The new VP's empire building created redundant departments.
It can also describe literal expansion of political empires through conquest or colonization.
- annexationAbsorbing territory into jurisdiction
- colonizationForeign territorial takeover
- conquestDefeating and seizing control
- hegemonyDominant group's control
- conglomeratesLarge diversified corporations
fiefdom · power grab · career advancement · corner office · crown · self-promotion · acquisitions · megalomania · imperialism · power consolidation · market dominance · grand strategy · mission creep · turf war · pecking order · monopolies · corporate strategy · sovereignty
- imperialismcolonization, imperial expansion, colonies, colonial rule, Scramble for Africa
- Colonial LiteratureHeart of Darkness, Kim, The Jungle Book, King Solomon's Mines, Robinson Crusoe
- bureaucracybureaucracy, bureaucrat, bureaucrats, red tape, civil service
- Victorianaseances, Dickens, spiritualism, Sherlock Holmes, phrenology
- 1800sVictorian era, Napoleon, Gilded Age, Queen Victoria, Industrial Revolution
- conquestwar of conquest, capture, invasion, domination, subjugation
empire buildingdownsizing
Reducing workforce or scale
retrenchment · divestiture · contraction · scaling back · dissolution
empire buildingdecentralization
Distributing power from center
servant leadership · delegation · self-effacement · letting go · empowerment
empire buildingdecolonization
Ending imperial control
disintegration · secession · balkanization · liberation · independence movements