In 1968 the sociologist Dr Laurence Peter published a book in which we described the phenomenon whereby people working within organisations will keep getting promoted until they reach a level where they are incompetent to do their job. This is then the level where they will remain, no longer competent enough to be promoted further, and also no longer displaying the competence which led to them being promoted in the first place. Usually, unless it is extreme, incompetence is not enough for someone to actually lose their job and so they stay in their ‘final placement’.
He re-purposed the expression ‘the cream rises to the top’ and instead said ‘the cream rises till it sours’. Followed to it’s logical end point, this suggests that a corporation will eventually be filled by people at every level who are incompetent. In some organisations I suspect this will have the ring of truth to it and, indeed, further researchers have found some evidence of this happening in the real world.
This is a depressing thought, but the Peter Principle need not be an inevitability. Rather, the principle is a warning of a pitfall to be avoided. The problem arrives with the assumption that being good at one job automatically means that an employee will be good at the next job up on the ladder. For example, assuming that someone who is good at following instructions will be good at giving those instructions. This is probably never going to be true unless that employee is given appropriate training and support to enable them to be competent in the new role.
The Peter Principle therefore really underpins the logic of investing properly in staff development. People should be trained in preparation for a new role, and then supported when they arrive in that new role. If this isn’t done, then a company will indeed ultimately be filled with people who are bad at their job.