Nah, it literally grew from managers bragging very often about how much efficient they are, even though the facts were showing the very opposite of that.

I'm surprised "British scientists" meme has a good Wikipedia article in English[0].

P.S. Runet's memepedia Lurkmore redirects from "Efficient manager" to Stalin page.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_scientists_(meme)