The Peter Principle

We’ve all heard of that manager that absolutely does no work and has little clue as to what he or she is doing. Are they simply slacking because of the promotion they got or do they truly struggle to grasp the demands of the position? This common workplace phenomenon is called The Peter Principle. The definition of this principle cannot be said in a better way than the way the founder of the principle, Laurence J. Peter, put it. He states, “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence.”

The core problem comes from the way we think about promotions. How does one currently consider an employee for a higher position? Well, they would assess their current performance and use that to determine their promotion. However, they fail to take into account the person’s future potential for the new role. It might not suit their strengths, job profile, or might even be completely out of their scope. For example, a person good at coding does not necessarily have to be good at managing fellow coders. Delegation and management is completely different to coding. 

This is primarily why there are frequent inefficiencies in higher levels of hierarchies. Some companies have found solutions to this. They offer dual career tracks, which allows employees, say engineers, to grow in technical expertise without the load of managing people. This creates new roles like a systems manager, who focuses on implementing new software and technology solutions into the company rather than managing people. The Peter Principle illustrates a key problem with today’s organizations’ policies and thinking strategies.