The "Peter Principle" - just curious, who knows what that is/means?

[Mind_your_head]

Please don't 'cheat' and google it up before you answer (but, by all means, look it up AFTER you answer, if necessary, ;-) ) .... just wondering.

edit: added 'if necessary'

[mike_c]

1. people tend to rise within organizations until they reach...

...their level of incompetency. Dude, I live with this every day.

on edit: presumed dude.

[Mind_your_head]

6. I just asked if you 'knew what it was'...... it's a 'spoiler' if you

EXPLAIN it....maybe you might consider an 'edit' ;-)

[Mind_your_head]

11. Sorry, nevermind.....this isn't what I expected ..... don't edit

*sigh*

[mike_c]

14. well, since all the responses below mine also spoiled it...

...I'll leave it as testimony to my apparent inability to follow simple instructions-- likely the first symptom of having risen too far in the local hierarchy!

[Mind_your_head]

21. LOL

I didn't ask that question 'correctly'......

There's a TON of people out there who may not know what the Peter Principle is.....I just wanted to introduce the idea to those that may not have heard about it...

Good thing I'm not a teacher by profession.

[Yupster]

46. There was another maxim I remember from the book

to the effect that if a manager gets hired to be the top leader, expect him to spend the bulk of his time overseeing the department he used to run. In other words, managers will spend their time doing the part of the job they are most comfortable and familiar with rather than the part of the job that most needs doing.

I saw this first hand when I was a teacher.

Our new principal was a former shop teacher. He went to work whole hog getting the cracks repaired and landscaping perfected. But he didn't spend a bit of time or energy on academics which was his most important role of the school.

I asked the superintendant if he couldn't move this guy from school to school each year as the cracks did need repairing, but keeping him at the same school for years was a disaster. He didn't listen to me. He never did.

[Jack Rabbit]

19. That was the original Peter Principle

The Peter Principle needs an update.

Nowadays, they don't wait for employees to rise to their levels of incompetency. Instead, they train incompetents at the Harvard Business School and Yale University.

[mike_c]

22. lol....

:rofl:

Proactive incompetency!

[northofdenali]

33. Yeah. Too bad planned obsolescense isn't built into 'em!!

:evilgrin:

[JHB]

44. You can laugh...

...but he's more right than wrong. :cry:

[Pachamama]

31. Peter Drucker...?

I went to Wharton...:shrug:

but it is actually named after someone else I believe...in any event, its a very applicable theory to this administration....

[Atman]

2. Yup.

Every man rises to the level of his own incompetence.

IOW, you will keep being promoted until you reach a level at which you no longer have the ability to do your job.

[TheDebbieDee]

3. Does it have anything to do with the............

management principle that people rise to their level of incompetence.........It would explain why * is President!

[Atman]

8. Bush Petered out long ago

He was INSTALLED in his current job BECAUSE of his incompetence. His bosses needed a bumbling lackey.

[SharonAnn]

10. Nah, he was incompetent in many previous jobs.

[sce56]

13. Well you kind of have it right Just Bush does not qualify since he has

never done anything in his life competently!

[LibertyLover]

4. Peter principle

It was in a book of the same name that came out probably 20 or so years ago. The basic theory is that people are promoted to their level of incompetence. There is more to it than that, but I only skimmed the book and don't remember all the details.

[NYC]

35. 37 years ago.

Dr. Laurence J. Peter; Raymond Hull (1969). The Peter Principle: why things always go wrong, p. 179 pages, New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc..

[LibertyLover]

41. How time

flies when you're having fun. :evilgrin:

[TheBaldyMan]

43. It's a common fallacy about it being incapsulated in a single line

it's more correct to refer to a whole range of concepts that together comprise 'the Peter principle'

Personaly I would encapsulate it in the saying 'Keep it simple'

[EVDebs]

5. To my thinking it is the epitome of the Bush administration....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle

[virgdem]

24. I've been calling this admin the Peter Principle Admin for a long time

Its so fitting. Bush is the epitome of incompetence.

[EVDebs]

27. This post on Sun Tzu and the art of war is hysterically funny...enjoy !

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=50015&mesg_id=57722

[AlCzervik]

7. promoted to your highest level of incompetency--ie bush

[SPKrazy]

9. Some Of Us Are Old Enough Not To Think This Is Anything New

that we'd have to google to know what it means

[niyad]

12. the other two posters have it--within any hierarchy, a person always rises

to his level of incompetence.

alas, the peter principle has been proven wrong by the incompetent liars, thieves and thugs of the current mis-administration, all of whom have risen FAR above whatever level of competence they might actually possess (unless, of course, one believes that their actions are achieving PRECISELY the results they want, which is a really sobering thought)

[chaumont58]

15. Man rises to his level of incompetence

It really makes sense. A person rises to better and better jobs becauses he is competent(unless he is like Bush where cronyism counts most) and finally reaches a level(job) where he no longer competent, and thus rises no more.

[TygrBright]

16. It's how our government works....

...promote people until they end up in a job they're too bloody iggerent or incompetent to do.

So far it's working beautifully.

sourly,
Bright

[bainz]

17. Google it?

Heck, I have the book. I read it in high school and thought it was funny. Now, 17 years later, I see it firsthand.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

18. The way your thread title reads, it looks like you are asking for DUers to

give you the answer, not to just say whether they know the answer.

A better phrasing might have been "How many of you know what the Peter Principle is?" which could still be misunderstood, but has the clear implication that you are surveying to see how broad the knowledge of this term is.

[Mind_your_head]

25. Yes, that was what I intended.....a broad survey of the knowledge

of it.

Thank you for better communication of it than I am/was capable. :-)

[HawkerHurricane]

20. In a large enough organization...

people will be promoted until they are incapable of doing thier job. Then they will stay there, incompetent, because no one will admit it was a mistake and demote or fire them.

"Peter" came up with the principal while working for the British school system, where he noted that what it took to be promoted wasn't what it took to do the job you were being promoted to. To become a teacher, you had to be a good student... but being a student was nothing like being a teacher. To become a dean, you had to be a good teacher... but the job of dean is nothing like that of teacher. And so on. If you were good at your job, you were promoted into a job that was different.

[Dr.Phool]

23. In my own personal experience, it means

If you graduated from Penn State, you're qualified to run any company into the ground!

[RoyGBiv]

26. Hopefully ...

Hopefully anyone who has ever worked in an organization with more than one person in it will know what it means.

It's been a part of my personal lexicon since I was a teenager.

[Dudley_DUright]

28. Read the book years ago, but it doesn't apply that well to BushCo

since they are not competent at any level (including dog-catcher). The only qualification necessary is loyalty to BushCo.

[northofdenali]

29. Well, IIRC, Bush is a perfect example.........

no Google necessary, it was required reading in a sociology course at my college.

[Mind_your_head]

30. I wish it were required reading now.... n/t

[Pachamama]

32. Peter Drucker...?

I went to Wharton...:shrug:

but it is actually named after someone else I believe...in any event, its a very applicable theory to this administration....

[Neil Lisst]

34. people tend to rise to their level of incompetence

from an author from the 1970s

[jmatthan]

36. Every Bush grows wild and creates a state of chaos

(until trimmed or cut down)

[Marie26]

37. Promoted to their level of incompetence

I remember the head of Jefferson Parish calling the Bush Administration "The Peter Principle, squared." Seemed to sum it all up.

[McCamy Taylor]

38. Bush's problem is they cant let new people in on their criminal activity.

So, they have to promote from within the same circle that committed all the crimes and they are running out of people.

This isnt really the Peter Principle. It is more like no one would take the job, because who wants to be indicted for covering up a crime some one else did?

[Marie26]

39. Like a Mafia don

Can't let any new people into "the family".

[KitchenWitch]

40. people become promoted until the level where their incompetence shows

but they do not get fired.

[Jigarotta]

42. Peter Pan never wants to grow up.

think that's it. swear I didn't google.

[WinkyDink]

45. Have the book, first printing, so don't have to look up anything!

Boomer here!