An IT department is under pressure to cut costs. As a result, the quality of services has started to suffer. What imbalance does this represent?

Excessive focus on quality would describe a scenario where quality improvements drive costs unsustainably high, which is the opposite situation.

Being excessively reactive describes an operational posture of responding to incidents rather than preventing them, unrelated to the cost-quality trade-off described.

Being excessively proactive describes over-investment in preventive measures, not a cost-driven quality reduction.

ITIL Service Strategy emphasises that IT must balance cost and quality to deliver value. When cost-cutting measures cause service quality to decline, the organisation has shifted too far toward cost optimisation without regard for quality outcomes. This imbalance - excessive focus on cost - is a recognised anti-pattern in service management.