Thursday, January 28, 2010

Laws & Principles: The Peter Principle / Laurence J Peter (1919-1990)


“In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
- Laurence J Peter, the above being known as the Peter Principle.
The principle holds that in a hierarchy members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain.
Dr Peter's Corollaries:
“In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties."
"Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence".

1 comment:

  1. "The principle holds that in a hierarchy members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain."

    I remember being seconded to a new position, and lasted abut 3 weeks before I asked to go back to my old job, so the principle didn't work for me :-)

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