At a company I was recently working at my immediate manager often undermined other managers. They seemed to have a clique with some other managers but viewed all other managers as the enemy and would deliberately obstruct or delay the projects that they were involved with outside of their own team, e.g. saying in our team meeting, "I didn't do any work on this project because the project manager is bossy". When I complained about this behaviour to their line manager I was told that this is "normal behaviour" and "what I would have done myself" (i.e. their line manager would behave the same way).
I have worked at a lot of different companies but this is the first time I have come across this attitude. I have never been a manager so I don't know if maybe there is some rationale behind it. I am no longer at this company but I would like to understand better if the situation occurs again.
I have always thought that when at work you put your personal feelings aside, try to get along with everyone you work with (no matter if short-term or long-term) and do what's best for the business. Is there any way that undermining most other managers could be good for the company? I can't see how as a non-manager I could ever get away with that kind of behaviour. How could I have handled the situation better? Should I have ignored it as a "management issue"? Was I wrong to think it was an issue?