[ChuckMcM]

I hadn't considered this a "US" or "American" thing but since I really don't have very much experience dealing with non-US management I recognize it very well may be.

My experience with bad news especially is that too many managers have linked their self worth to their company's success and so bad news equates to them being bad and thus avoided.

I was remarkably fortunate to take a job at Intel as my first job out of college during the Andy Grove years. While there are arguments to made on the pluses and minuses of "constructive criticism", the leadership culture under Andy was that problems were there to provide something for the rest of us to work on. When they came up they got pounced on as they were often how people were measured in their reviews.

I did not realize at the time this was different than other companies in the valley. Intel focused on the people who saw the problems, came up with solutions or workarounds, and kept moving. As opposed to the people who "simply" delivered their milestones on time.

It was much later in my career when I found myself in a company that was actively ignoring problems. That struck me as so foreign I had a hard time dealing with it.