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Old 12-12-2003, 11:42 AM   #16 (permalink)
Bill O'Rights
will always be an Alyson Hanniganite
 
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Location: In the dust of the archives
Quote:
Originally posted by Mael
is that an official term? either way, that's awesome. "I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are! We're looking up money laundering in a dictionary!"
Yes, The Peter Principle has been around since to 70's.

Quote:
The Peter Principle was first introduced by Dr. L. Peter in a humoristic book (of the same title) describing the pitfalls of bureaucratic organization. The original principle states that in a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their "level of incompetence". The principle is based on the observation that in such an organization new employees typically start in the lower ranks, but when they prove to be competent in the task to which they are assigned, they get promoted to a higher rank. 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.
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