
Basically, it is more likely to manifest itself in bureaucracies having low internal mobility and appears when people who are passed over for promotion improve more with another year's experience than those promoted to new jobs which are unfamiliar and more challenging. Criteria for the manifestation of this phenomenon will be presented. Screening procedures which are uniform, realistic and selective can actually decrease relative performance after promotion. This can be true even if there is effective screening and promotion is by merit, rather than seniority. That is, above a certain critical hierarchical level, performance decreases slowly, but steadily, with increasing level. In this paper, a realistic Markovian model of hierarchies is considered which reveals that under suitable conditions The Peter Principle applies. Its effects, nevertheless, can be resolved through extensive training of those who are promoted.We conclude that occupational incompetence is always seen through the eyes of others. As a result, the Peter Principle cannot be overlooked. Ironically, seventy-three percent of the respondents in my study said that they have seen a Peter Principle condition happen within the last five years, while some of the participants did not agree that the Peter Principle even exists.The behaviors personified in the Peter Principle still have disturbing effects that occur only too regularly in organizations.


This paper shows that the Peter Principle, the marvel in which employees, around the world, are said to rise to their level of ineffectiveness is still widespread today and that little regarding its use has changed since 1969. Laurence Peter's study of 1969, The Peter Principle-Why Things Always Go Wrong, which achieved best-seller ranking and soon became a part of the lexicon of the business world.We studied, through face-to-face interactions with various employees in eight organizations, whether the concept of incompetence is still in effect. Wondering if the Peter Principle is still relevant-individuals in an organization rise to their level of incompetence-we re-examined Dr.
