I don' think that this is news to anyone that works in higher ed. I work at a University and its repeated all throughout the campus. Basically administrators want to set up their own little empires on the campus and make themselves seem indispensable. I'm pretty sure things like this happen at most large organizations in some form.
Organizations don't even have to be large for this to happen. If you're ambitious there's no place for you to move up finding a new job isn't the only option. People often try to redefine or expand their current job.
When it gets out of control it's a sure sign of a management problem.
