What principle states that 'in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence'?
Laurence J. Peter Coordinator of Programs for Emotionally Disturbed Children at the University of Southern California. He became widely known in 1968 upon the publication of "The Peter Principle", in which he states: "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence... [I]n time every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties... Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence." The Peter principle became one of the most profound principles of management from the University of Southern California. It is a heavily quoted
Peter principle field marshals of his country's allies. They conclude that "this could happen to every employee in every hierarchy." In chapter 3, Peter and Hull discuss apparent exceptions to this principle and then debunk them. One of these illusory exceptions is when someone who is incompetent is still promoted anyway. This is known as ""percussive sublimation"" (i.e. being "kicked upstairs"). But it is only a pseudo-promotion: a move from one unproductive position to another; whereas a true promotion is a move from a position of competence (either to a position of competence or to a position of incompetence). This improves staff