Title inflation is the florid language dressing up roles, but also the artificial raising of roles in stature. For example, a middle manager being a VP means that a VP like role needs to be a SVP or Senior Executive Vice President. The incentives are clear, it’s a cheap way for the company to acknowledge work and it can also communicate that a company cares about a specific function. It can also make clients more prone to take a meeting if the other person has a lofty title. The downsides are that it may cause qualified candidates to avoid applying and it devalues the role just like real inflation. The goal of this language is to create a sense of shared endeavor but that veneer can quickly fall away when things get bad (e.g. layoffs)1.