The basic principle behind many senior management issues has been known to me for some time, but I have recently been provided with a nice clear explanation of why I spend many of my shifts banging my head on the nearest wall:
The principle states that:
“In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”, meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle, a humorous treatise which also introduced the “salutary science of hierarchiology.”
The principle holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Eventually they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. Peter’s Corollary states that “in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out their duties” and adds that “work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.” “Managing upward” is the concept of a subordinate finding ways to subtly “manage” superiors in order to limit the damage that they end up doing.
I guess the only significant variable is how far an individual rises before their own glass ceiling is reached. Some of those I have worked with were obviously born onto a glass floor! And before any of you ask, I have had the opportunity for promotion but chosen to stay where I am for the time being. Hopefully that means I can still claim to be moderately competent at my job!
