Talk:Peter Principle

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[edit] Is the Kelileh va Demneh quotation really a historical precedent?

The quotation from Kelileh va Demneh does not appear to be a historical precedent at all. The claim that "baseborn weaklings" are no longer sincere and useful after they reach an office they are unworthy of is just a judgement about the effect of officeholders being unworthy of their office. The Peter Principle addresses the cause of that effect. The citation is also particularly unhelpful by failing to provide more reference info -- what character? in which story? -- and it's not clear why Kelileh va Demneh, the Persian translation of the Sanskrit Panchatantra, is cited instead of the original. Mtiffany 15:43, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree, and thus moved the Historical precedents section here. A better sourced precedent quote would be nice. 84.239.128.9 13:27, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

In the Kalila wa Dimna, a Sassanid Persian collection of fables, one of the characters states that "The baseborn weakling is always sincere and useful until he reaches an office he is unworthy of."

[edit] rant

The Peter Principle points up a long recognized problem: The failure to reward employees for competence AT THEIR EXISTING LEVEL. It has long been the case in most bureaucracies that the only avenue to advancement beyond a journeyman level is promotion to management. Management requires very different skills from most technical jobs such as engineering. Hence, it is unavoidable that we create a cadre of incompetent managers. For a time it was proposed that individuals be offered alternate paths to advancement within professional tracks, but this idea seems to have fallen from favor without much application. Perhaps this is due to the fact that in many organizations management is valued more for political power and social status than its functional significance. Thus, it is offensive to managers that highly skilled technical workers might be more highly compensated.

Management as a whole sets wages in most companies, so it is then unsurprising that in most organisations management is given a premium wage. From personal experience I can agree with the point about managers not allowing their subordinates to be paid more than themselves - in the IT industry this became very problematic in some places (particularly in the late 90s) due to skilled IT staff requiring a very high wage to employ. This was one of the driving factors of large scale contracting, as it was somehow deemed okay to have temporary staff earning 2,3 or even 4 times as much as the manager, but all permanent staff had to earn less than their manager frequently. -- 217.42.3.37 10:18, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Some of the most bizarre managements I've encountered have been those where people are promoted because of their technical competence rather than their ability to lead and motivate. This happens in a lot of technology companies. It's something I try to avoid, as it's usually the case that these sorts of people are just not cut out to manage projects, and in my experience disaster and disappointment has usually been the result. The phenomenon is usually accompanied by an extreme gender imbalance. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.119.92.25 (talk) 04:24, 20 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] LJ Peter was Chilliwack, BC school board administrator?

According to local myth, and as far as I know it's true because my teachers in Mission, British Columbia, knew the guy, Laurence J. Peter wrote The Peter Principle as a result of his experiences as an administerator (or superintendent?) of the local school board in Chilliwack, British Columbia. Anyone else here heard of this?Skookum1 08:08, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

WHY DO WE, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, EVEN TRY???? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.246.135.150 (talk) 23:10, 16 March 2007 (UTC).

Is it unfair for someone to apply prescriptions to this principle to employees within a company that is selling out to CHINA??? Fix politics on the federal government level, then we can fix corporate politics. Why China? The country that is almost land-locked by terrorists?? My co-workers and I are left lethargic over this. We bust our rumps all day every day to produce quality product. The entire time we wonder why we are competing with a country that has no labor laws, no EPA rules, no OSHA. Now the Chinese government says that in some year in the future they will not allow any company to build factories unless they are green factories. Product prices will rise with labor and occcupational health restrictions imposed on these companies. Before then, because of the level of competition in sales, the quality of US product will decline. Who will look good then????? You guessed it. China.

The best alternative for th US is to sever ties with China before this country and its economy implodes. The next step is to make up with Cuba and help rebuild their economy and ours. We also have South America and Central America with all of their oil resources. Let's unite with countries on this side of the world, and stop trying to make friends with all of these land-locked and war-burdened countries overseas. plummear@metrocast.com