| The Peter Principle  [+ favourites]
This is why things will always go wrong with government or anything for that matter. The Peter Principle states that in a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their "level of incompetence". This process of climbing up the hierarchical ladder can go on indefinitely, until the employee reaches a position where he or she is no longer competent. At that moment the process typically stops, since the established rules of bureacracies make that it is very difficult to "demote" someone to a lower rank, even if that person would be much better fitted and more happy in that lower position. The net result is that most of the higher levels of a bureaucracy will be filled by incompetent people, who got there because they were quite good at doing a different (and usually, but not always, easier) task than the one they are expected to do.
Thus we can see why organizations still function even as the Peter Principle causes some employees to accept one too many promotions.
ex. If you're a proficient and effective software developer, you're most likely demonstrating peak competence in your job right now. As a result of your performance, your valuable contribution results in a promotion to a management position. In this new position, you now do few of the original tasks which gained you acclaim. In fact, little of your current job remains enjoyable, therefore your heart is no longer in your work, and it shows. Given this, promotions stop, and there you stay, until you retire or your company goes under due to mismanagement.
Companies will attract and expand on a certain level of incompetence. Once a company forms a culture of incompetence, only the incompetent staff will remain, and the competent ones will tire of trying to soar with eagles while surrounded by turkeys, and therefore leave.
The end result is that non-growing companies are more likely to have incompetent employees at many levels of the organizational structure whereas growing companies add new positions and employees so fast that the inevitable results of the Peter Principle may be forestalled so long as growth continues.
Management consultants who recognize that the Peter Principle is in full swing in their clients organization often recommend percussive sublimations and lateral arabesque for high ranking employees to make room for new employees, because new employees are not yet at their level of incompetence thus they can actually do the work they were hired to do which increases total output of the organization.
The same will be employed with even bush, as an unsuccessful oil industry executive in Texas, he was rewarded with the Governorship. When he was a mediocre Governor in his first term, he was rewarded with a second term. When his second term was equally uneventful, (unless you were on death row), he was rewarded by being appointed a President by the Supreme Court. When he was a disastrous President in his first term, he was rewarded with the second term by a homophobic public that was fed prepackaged news.
True to the principle that carries his name, Bush has appointed: Ms Rice to the position of Secretary of State after failing miserably as National Security Advisor (Remember August 6th memo?); nominated Albert Gonzales as Attorney General as a reward for justifying the torture of prisoners; and named Mr. Wolfowitz as his candidate for president of the World Bank as a reward for a botched Iraq occupation.
""That's only the tip of the iceberg.""
[ Edited by analytical29 at
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