The opposite. Department heads get fired for allowing blow-ups in their area, that should have been avoided. "Getting credit" means keeping the job managing the department via preventing problems.
I’ve seen it mean the department head is told to cut staff. If things run smoothly with 100 people, let’s see how runs with 90, then 80, and so on. The preventative measures start taking a backseat as the staffing issues are felt. The cuts keep coming until something falls over and the department head is pushed out after failing to maintain the service.
