Peter Principle

Peter Principle
   The Peter principle states: "In every hierarchy, whether it be government or business, each employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence, every post tends to be filled by an employee incompetent enough to execute his duties." This, in the opinion of the authors, is the principle of bureaucratic organization. It was originally enunciated in the satirical best-selling book The Peter PrincipleWhy Things Always Go Wrong, published in 1969 and written by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull. Their examples were drawn mostly from the operation of the school system, and they cite as an example the outstanding classroom teacher who has been appointed principal and is hopelessly inept. The promotion essentially demoted her; as a principal she was unable to function well. "All useful work is done by those who have not yet reached their level of incompetence," Peter writes. "The cream rises until it sours." Peter, a Canadian educator and psychologist, was born in 1919, and devoted all his professional life to the British Columbia education system.

Dictionary of eponyms. . 2013.

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  • Peter Principle — ☆ Peter Principle n. [after The Peter Principle (1968) by L. J. Peter & R. Hull] the facetious proposition that each employee in an organization tends to be promoted until reaching his or her level of incompetence …   English World dictionary

  • Peter Principle — 1968, in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence, named for (and by) Laurence Johnston Peter (1919 1990) Canadian born U.S. educationalist and author, who described it in his book of the same name (1969) …   Etymology dictionary

  • Peter Principle — For the BBC sitcom, see The Peter Principle (TV series). The Peter 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… …   Wikipedia

  • Peter Principle — An observation that in an organizational hierarchy, every employee will rise or get promoted to his or her level of incompetence. The Peter Principle is based on the notion that employees will get promoted as long as they are competent, but at… …   Investment dictionary

  • Peter principle — /ˈpitə prɪnsəpəl/ (say peetuh prinsuhpuhl) noun the theory that, in a hierarchy, each employee tends to rise to a level just beyond his or her level of competence. {formulated in the humorous treatise The Peter Principle (1969) by Laurence J… …  

  • peter principle —  Tendency of management to promote people one level above their competence. Dr. Lawrence Peter of the University of Southern California coined the term.  ► “The Peter Principle may be responsible for some employees’ performance problems.”… …   American business jargon

  • Peter Principle, the — Peter ,Principle, the noun the idea that people are given more and more important jobs until they reach a level within an organization at which they are no longer capable of dealing with the work …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • Peter Principle — noun the principle that members of a hierarchy are promoted until they reach the level at which they are no longer competent. Origin 1960s: named after the Canadian educationalist Laurence J. Peter …   English new terms dictionary

  • peter principle — n. joc. the principle that members of a hierarchy are promoted until they reach the level at which they are no longer competent. Etymology: L. J. Peter, its propounder, b. 1919 …   Useful english dictionary

  • Peter principle — A principle which states that employees tend to be promoted to a level above the level at which they are competent and efficient, a process which creates incompetent senior management in any organization …   Dictionary of sociology

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