HBS Working Knowledge has an interesting article on this topic. I too have often wondered why some organizations are never able to scale-up. And why excellence is a board room discussion and not a widespread culture in organizations. The truth is managers can afford to ignore it or act as if it is not a problem but customers recognize it!
Over the past thirty years, several of my colleagues and I have tried to figure out why a handful of organizations are able to achieve true excellence. One of several things they all do is hire for attitude and train for skills. By "attitude," they typically mean the ability to identify with and "live" core values of the organization such as respect for others, being customer-driven, etc. Their managements have concluded that it is too difficult and costly to try to change the attitudes of adults. As a result, they release those unable to work and manage according to the organization's values and replace them with those who can.