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Peter Principle: for-profit Corporate vs not-for-profit Government jobs

By Jeff Buster
Created 12/25/2010 - 17:36

The Peter Principle [1]is the principle that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence".  In other words, workers are tools which are used for as wide a range of tasks as that tool will perform adequately.    You can use a Crescent wrench [2]to loosen a nut which doesn’t have rusted threads, but a Crescent wrench won’t transmit as much torque as a 6 point  wrench [3] – so when the nut begins to strip, the Crescent wrench has become incompetent to perform the job.

 
At a for-profit corporation (particularly one with constant employee feed back and profit sharing like Lincoln Electric [4])  the Peter Principle is perhaps operational because there is  motivation among all members of the hierarchy to advance productivity for their personal benefit and for the benefit of the group. .    
 
In a not-for-profit governmental hierarchy – like Cuyahoga County or the City of Cleveland – there is no motivation to advance productivity for the  personal benefit of each employee  and for the benefit of the governmental/citizen group.    
 
So what does this mean relative to the Peter Principle?
 
Could it be that the Peter Principle works in reverse in a not-for-profit governmental hierarchy?   Could it be that in a governmental hierarchy every  competent employee tends to sink?  
 
In the next few days I will relate an imaginary personal experience which would tend to confirm the Sinking of Competent Employees in a Governmental Hierarchy.
 
In the mean time, what are your thoughts and experiences?
 
PS:  there is also the Dilbert Principle [5]...
 
 

 

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Source URL (retrieved on 04/25/2024 - 09:50): http://realneo.us/content/peter-principle-profit-corporate-vs-not-profit-government-jobs

Links:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle
[2] http://www.google.com/images?q=crescent+wrench&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=ynUWTeX7LYmfnAeDn_XwDQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CEcQsAQwAg&biw=1126&bih=660
[3] http://www.google.com/images?q=six+point+wrench&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=AnYWTfSIBOXtnQfz94SmDg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=6&ved=0CFQQsAQwBQ&biw=1126&bih=660
[4] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000155,00.html
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dilbert_Principle