I think the challenge is largely a matter of scale. Once you have thousands or tens of thousands of people, communication becomes by far the dominant factor in outcomes. You can set up different structures and cultural norms to try to nudge things in the right direction, but there is no org structure that can solve this because local details always matter. The trick is understanding which details matter and why.
Ultimately I think this depends on management competence and judgement. I also think IC leadership is a critical counterweight to the distortions of empire building that incentivize creating messes. And finally as a competent individual you need the maturity to recognize the difference between unavoidable but tolerable organizational dysfunction, and broken leadership where its impossible to do good work, and hence time to cut bait and leave.
Ultimately I think this depends on management competence and judgement. I also think IC leadership is a critical counterweight to the distortions of empire building that incentivize creating messes. And finally as a competent individual you need the maturity to recognize the difference between unavoidable but tolerable organizational dysfunction, and broken leadership where its impossible to do good work, and hence time to cut bait and leave.