Peter Principle

"Occupational Incompetence is everywhere, Have you noticed it? Probably we all have noticed it" 

...Peter & Hull  (1969, p 20)

The Peter Principle is a management principle that was formulated by Lawrence J. Peter.  The concept was generalized after careful observation of humans. The principle states that

"Every Employee tends to rise to his/her level of incompetence"

Candidate promotion is based on performance on their current role, rather than on their abilities relevant to the intended role. Therefore employees promotion stops when they can no longer perform effectively i.e. Their level of incompetence. Promoting the people most competent at one job does not mean that they will be better at another in an hierarchical organization. 

In a organization with an hierarchy system, their employees promotion is based on competence until they are promoted to their level of incompetence and they will be unable to earn further promotions. Overtime, most of the positions are occupied by incompetent employees and work is accomplished by the employees who have not reached their level of incompetence.

Examples of Peter's Principle:
i. A good researcher who is not necessarily a good teacher
ii. A successful entrepreneur who is not necessarily a good governor.


The overview of Peter's hypothesis is that a candidates competence in a new level could be uncorrelated to their new one.


Reference
Peter, L. F., & Hull, R. (1969). The Peter principle – Why things always go wrong. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company, Inc.
Pluchino A, Rapisarda A and Garofalo(2010): "The Peter Prinicple Revisited: a Computational Study", PhysicaA 389(2010) 467

Post written by- Komolafe Oyindolapo