The Peter Principle

Laurence J. Peter, a management scientist, was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1919. He received a bachelor's degree from Washington State University in the United States in 1957 and a doctorate of philosophy in education from that school 6 years later. He has rich experience and knowledgeable talents. He has written quite a lot, and his name has been included in dictionaries such as "Who's Who in America", "Who's Who in Science in America" ​​and "The International Dictionary of Biographical Biography".

The Peter Principle (The Peter Principle) is based on the analysis of hundreds of examples of failures in the organization that are incompetent. The specific content is: "In a hierarchical system, each employee tends to rise to a position where he is not competent." Peter pointed out that every employee will be promoted to a higher level due to good performance (competence) in the original position; after that, if they continue to be competent, they will be further promoted until they reach a position that he is not competent. The inference derived from this is: "Each position will eventually be occupied by an employee who is not competent for its job. Most of the tasks of the hierarchical organization are completed by employees who have not reached the competent level." Every employee will eventually reach Peter Heights, where his promotion quotient (PQ) is zero. As for how to accelerate to this high ground, there are two ways. One is the above "pull", that is, relying on nepotism and acquaintances to pull from above; the second is the "push" of the self, that is, self-training and progress, and the former is commonly used.

Peter believes that due to the introduction of Peter's principle, he "unintentionally" created a new science-Hierarchiolgy. This science is the key to solving the mystery of all classes and systems, and therefore the key to understanding the entire civilization structure. Everyone in business, industry, politics, administration, military, religion, and education is closely related to hierarchical organizations and is also controlled by Peter's principle. Of course, the assumption of the principle is that the time is long enough and there are enough levels in the hierarchical organization. Peter's principle is considered to be related to Parkinson's law.

In the study of hierarchical organization, Peter also analyzed and concluded Peter's reversal principle:

The competence of an employee is determined by the boss in the hierarchy, not by outsiders. If the boss has reached the incompetent class, he may judge subordinates based on the value of the system. For example, he will pay attention to whether employees comply with regulations, ceremonies, forms, etc.; he will especially appreciate employees who work quickly, clean and courteous. In short, similar bosses judge subordinates by input. Therefore, for those professional mechanical actors who have reversed the relationship between means and ends, methods are more important than goals, paperwork is more important than predetermined goals, they lack the autonomy of independent judgment, and they are only obedient and do not make decisions. Organizations believe that they are competent workers and are therefore eligible for promotion. Only when they reach positions where they must make decisions will the organization find that they have reached the incompetent class. From the point of view of customers, customers or victims, they are inherently incompetent.
Northgood Parkinson (C.N. Parkinson) is a well-known social theorist, he has carefully observed and interestingly described the accumulation of redundant staff in hierarchical organizations. He hypothesized that the senior executives in the organization use the strategy of differentiation and conquest to deliberately reduce the efficiency of the organization in order to enhance their power. This phenomenon is what Parkinson calls the "climbing pyramid." Peter believes that this theoretical design is flawed. The reason for the phenomenon of employee accumulation is that the senior executives of hierarchical organizations are sincerely pursuing efficiency (although in vain). As the Peter principle shows, many or most supervisors must have reached their incompetent class. These people cannot improve the current situation because all the employees have done their best, so in order to increase efficiency, they have to hire more employees. The increase in staff may temporarily improve efficiency, but these new recruits will eventually reach the incompetent class due to the promotion process, so the only way to improve is to increase the number of employees again, once again obtain temporary high efficiency, and then another gradually Attributed to inefficiency. In this way, the number of people in the organization exceeds the actual needs of the work.

The Peter Principles were first publicly published in a seminar funded by the United States in September 1960. The audience was a group of newly promoted project directors in charge of educational research projects. Peter believed that most of them "just desperately wanted to copy some old-fashioned Statistical exercises", so Peter's principle is introduced to illustrate their dilemma. The speech evoked hostility and ridicule, but Peter still decided to write Peter's principle with a unique irony. Although all the case studies were accurately compiled and the materials cited were in line with the facts, the final draft was completed in the spring of 1965, and there were 16 in total. Many publishers ruthlessly rejected the manuscript of the book. In 1966, the author published several articles on the same subject in newspapers sporadically. Readers' response was extremely enthusiastic, which attracted various publishing houses. As Peter mentioned in his autobiography, people occasionally catch a glimpse of their own figure in the mirror and cannot immediately recognize themselves, so they laugh at it before they know it. Such a moment can make people know themselves better." The "Peter Principle" plays exactly that kind of mirror.
In September 1960, at a seminar sponsored by the US federal government, Dr. Peter published his findings publicly for the first time.

At that time, Dr. Peter’s audience was a group of supervisors in charge of educational research projects, because every participant had completed a satisfactory proposal, and everyone had also been promoted-promoted to supervisor of one or more research projects .

Some of these people do have the ability to research, but this has nothing to do with the supervisory position they have obtained, and many others are not good at research projects. They just desperately copy some old statistical exercises.

Then, Dr. Peter determined to introduce Peter's principle to them to illustrate their plight. After they listened, there was both hostility and ridicule. A young statistician burst into laughter and fell from his chair. He explained to others that his strong reaction was provoked by Dr. Peter's offensive humorous speech. But at the same moment, he didn't notice the regional research director-his immediate superior's face was red and purple. At that time, a well-known journalist, Huer, was very interested in Peter's Principle, and he prompted Dr. Peter to write the genius thought into the book "Peter's Principle". However, the publication of "Peter's Principles" was quite a setback. Dr. Peter received a total of 14 rejection letters from incompetent editors. So he decided to adopt the circuitous method-called "Peter's circuitous method" in his book to facilitate publication. He and Mr. Hull wrote articles in newspapers and magazines to introduce Peter's principle. The response from readers was very strong. Within a few months, Dr. Peter received more than 400 letters from readers, and people who invited him to speak and submit papers flocked.

After the article caused a sensation, a publisher finally approached Dr. Peter to discuss publishing matters. After the book was published in February 1969, it gradually climbed to the top of the non-fiction bestseller list and has been at the top of the list for 20 weeks. So far, "Peter's Principle" has been translated into dozens of languages ​​and is popular all over the world. What's even more incredible is that the book has become a must-read course for many universities and has become the subject of many seminars.

In addition, the book also led to several serious research projects to investigate the validity of Peter's principle. Each study confirmed that Dr. Peter's observations were correct.

Dr. Peter's interpretation of "Peter's Principle" has become the most insightful social and psychological creation in this century.
The modern hierarchical organization system always supplements the vacancies caused by promotion, resignation, retirement, dismissal and death from below. People have always regarded promotion in hierarchical organizations as "climbing the ladder of success" or "climbing the ladder of power."

Hierarchical organization is often compared to a ladder, because ladders and hierarchical organizations do have some common characteristics. For example, a ladder is for people to climb up, and the higher the age, the greater the danger.

A person with a fixed income can manage his money reasonably. But once he inherited a huge amount of property, his financial management ability would become incompetent.
In an army or government-level organization, when a competent entourage is promoted to a leader, he will suddenly become incompetent.
When a competent scientist is promoted to the dean of the research institute, he may also become an incompetent manager.
The above various types of promotion are incompetent because it requires the promoted person to possess new abilities not required by his previous position.

An employee who has always been responsible for quality work may be promoted to a more competent supervisory position. Then, he may be able to be promoted to the leadership of management. Although it is a bit difficult to do, he works hard. If other conditions in the hierarchical organization are favorable, he may also reach a state of incompetence—being a department manager, which may be It was the highest ladder he could climb.

At this time, he needs to spend a lot of time to do daily work. If there is the support and help of a group of subordinates called functional workers, he can still finish the work barely.

Because he seems to be competent, coupled with the prestige of the leader, he may be promoted further, that is, promoted to general manager-he has now reached the maximum incompetence state.

As a general manager, his main responsibility is to make decisions that are closely related to the company’s goals and policies. From being responsible for quality work to dealing with long-term goals and more abstract concepts, he increasingly feels beyond his ability, not only for the company Bringing losses and causing great personal harm to him.

Some people have sensibly observed this fact, and may decide to withdraw from this fierce competition and start a new and more valuable life.

Today, many people have begun to doubt this "unfinished ladder" game. They regard the older generation as victims of Peter's Principle. They are no longer keen on building hierarchical organizations, but try to discover their own way of life.

Unfortunately, most people didn't take action, but just enjoyed it.
People always think that the higher the climb, the better, but looking around, we can see that there are many victims of such blind climbing.

In order to facilitate analysis, we divide employees into three levels: competent, moderately competent and incompetent.

Oakman is an outstanding technician of Lime Auto Repair Company. He is quite satisfied with his current position because he doesn't need to do much project work. Therefore, when the company intends to promote him to administrative work, he would like to reject it.

Oakman’s wife, Emma, ​​is an active member of the local Women’s Association. She encourages her husband to accept promotion opportunities. If Oakman is promoted, the social status and financial ability of the family will also be promoted to the next level. In this way, she can run for the chairman of the Women's Association, and can also change to a new car, buy new outfits, and buy a mini motorcycle for her son.

Oakman is reluctant to use his current job to change to a boring job in the office. But under Ai's persuasion and nagging, he finally succumbed. Six months after being promoted, Oakman had a stomach ulcer, and the doctor warned him that he must not drink alcohol. Ai also began to accuse Oakman of having an affair with the new secretary, and put all the responsibility for losing the chairmanship on him. Oakman has long working hours, but he has no sense of accomplishment, so he is grumpy after returning home from get off work. Due to constant accusations and quarrels with each other, the Oakmans' marriage failed completely.

Another opposite example is this. Harris is Oakman's colleague, he is also an excellent technician at Lyme, and the boss plans to promote him. Harris's wife Lisa knows very well that her husband likes his current job very much. He must not be willing to spend more time in the office and take more responsibilities. Shah didn't force Harris to do a job he didn't like. Therefore, Harris continued to work as a technician, leaving the gastric ulcer for Oakman. Harris has always maintained a cheerful personality and is a popular figure in the community. Outside of work, he also serves as the leader of the youth groups in the community. If a neighbor’s car needs repair, it must be sent to Lime Company in return for Harris’ usual enthusiasm for public welfare. Harris' boss knew that he was an indispensable and valuable asset for the company, so he provided him with generous bonuses, stable jobs, and all salary bonuses allowed within the system. So Harris bought a new car, bought new clothes for Lisa, and bought a bicycle and baseball gloves for his son. The Harris family leads a comfortable and happy family life. Their happy marriage is the envy of relatives and friends. The reputation they enjoy in the neighborhood is exactly what Mrs. Oakman dreams of.

Each level system is composed of different levels or categories, and the individuals in the system belong to each level. If a person's ability is strong, he will make the following contributions to human society, and his outstanding performance will be promoted. In this way, he will be promoted from the original competent level to the level he is unable to do.

Every job in the world will encounter people who are incompetent. As long as sufficient time and opportunities for promotion are given, this person with insufficient ability will eventually be transferred to an incompetent position. He will stay in this position and mess up the job. His performance will not only undermine the morale of colleagues, but also seriously hamper the efficiency of the entire organization.

More importantly, these "Mr. Nan Guo" will fall into a trap of self-seeking troubles themselves, and they are unable to extricate themselves, just like the aforementioned Oakman.
When we shift our gaze from individuals to organizations, we will find that every emerging hierarchical system has something to do at the beginning, but in the end it will inevitably become a dull bureaucracy.

Each institution had a golden age before it fell into a dead end. Postal and telegraph agencies, railway bureaus, telecommunications companies, airlines, natural gas companies, power companies and other institutions have all had a glorious beginning and development stage.

In an emerging system, because of its rapid growth, vigor, and constant creativity, it will show a high degree of efficiency. The flexibility of emerging organizations allows employees to use their talents where appropriate.

During this period, the performance of each employee will contribute to the performance of their respective positions. If an employee's ability has been strong, then his performance will continue to grow. If most positions in the system maintain good performance, then the performance of the entire system will also increase. This is the early development of most institutions.

As the system matures, the symptoms mentioned in Peter's principle appear one after another. Bureaucratic pollution limits the performance of excellent employees, but ensures that incompetent employees can get to higher-level positions. Every incompetent employee will have a bad influence on the work, and a group of incompetent employees will make the work disorder. Before long, the entire system will enter a period of depression. We call this phenomenon "system depression".

Adapting to the environment, using one's talents, and freedom of choice are all characteristics of human nature, but the "depression of the system" makes it more and more difficult to manifest human nature.

Human behavior is deeply restricted and manipulated by the hierarchical system to which it belongs. Humans are not like caterpillars, but more like puppets. The appearance of the puppet resembles a human being, and its actions are completely controlled by external forces.

Poor human beings under the "system depression" can be described as "queuing puppets". They will go through the stages of survival, punching in, filling in forms, and performing meaningless rituals. Today, "queuing puppets" has formed a huge social force. They include ordinary people, silent people, the majority, ordinary people or consumers.

The "queuing puppet" is a functional person. He is indifferent to the meaning of work, but is extremely enthusiastic about inventing newer and better bureaucratic procedures. He is committed to studying the methods of performing his duties, rather than exerting the essence of his duties.

"Line Puppets" pays much attention to personal belonging. From a broader perspective, he would be proud of his nationality, religion, or belonging to the majority group.

From the mid-level management level, he may belong to a huge organization, business club and fraternity society. From the perspective of senior management, he is particularly willing to join a private club or become a member of a senior organization. If the status of the "queuing puppet" is improved, he must be forced to face a painful decision-whether to be a puppet that makes a difference or to be an incompetent puppet.

When "queuing puppets" are in power, they will use their own limited understanding to interpret social phenomena. He often said: "We can do it, so let us do it." He is engaged in space exploration because all the necessary technology is readily available; he invented nuclear weapons that can wipe out the world’s population hundreds of times; he made hundreds The bacteria in the tanks, each tank has the power to kill 1 billion people, and the world's population who may be victims is only 6 billion.

What causes this phenomenon? Because he was suffering from mental depression, which led to the lack of feelings. Although he suffered greatly, he would not propose effective solutions to the problem, because any countermeasures would involve responsibility and humanitarian values.

The problem he faces is not to choose between guns or butter, nor is it to decide whether to build an express system that will benefit millions of citizens, or spend 3 billion yuan to develop a plan to land on the moon, but he cannot get out of the dilemma of hierarchical organization , He was pushed forward blindly by unintentional people.
Many people become "queuing puppets" without any sense of crisis. They continue to indulge in the behavioral pattern of queuing. Education, law, industry, government departments, etc. are advocating mediocrity, personal contributions no longer exist, mediocrity has become a popular fashion, and then become a model style. "Mediocre society" led by mediocre people is fully managed by "queuing puppets".

But there are some worried people, but they feel painful because of their awakening. These people who have not adapted to the environment screamed and advocated for change, but the silent public has become an incurable "following addiction."

"Following addiction" is a standard unit without individual characteristics. It is a typical representative of popular taste, and it is a component of popular culture, popular fashion, and popular morality.

Technology has created a standard society with no individuality, exempting them from the responsibility of following addiction, so that they no longer need to make decisions, and also make them feel that as long as they maintain their following behavior, they can safely receive education, laws, products, and government. mediocre.

Followerism is convinced of the tremendous advances in technology. He is superstitious by electroplating decorations on cars, refrigerators or other items. As a consumer, he considers himself one of the enablers of progress. He is involved in major events and is proud of the success of the space landing program, although he has nothing to do with these successes, and he only has a little knowledge of them.

If there are no restrictions, the proliferation of followerism will eventually corrode the structure of the entire society, creating a situation where there are many horses.

Another model that is completely different from the followerism is the "Humanite", whose essence is to cultivate spiritual life, benevolence and self-realization. This kind of people give full play to their potential and get satisfaction from creativity, self-confidence, and talent.

If everyone works hard to be a humanitarian, we can not only save ourselves from incompetence, but also reverse the escalating system depression.
The ideal "queuing puppet" is systematically deprived of imagination, creativity, talent, dreams and personal characteristics.

Since entering the public school, he has been instilled with knowledge of different subjects and used this knowledge to deal with life problems. People who come out of this kind of education system will become mechanized roles in mediocre society. Once he entered the "Mediocre Society", he was oppressed by overwhelming forces, and the true feelings remaining in his heart could not be expressed faithfully. Mechanized working methods that deprive him of individuality will make him further lose himself. Finally, he can only be satisfied if he formulates the role of "queuing puppet".

In a society where the mediocrity is supreme, everything upholds popularization and vulgarization. This trend makes the taste of the whole society low, and the quality of products is no longer excellent.

In a mediocre society, every department in an administrative organization tends to inflate and perfuse themselves. The rules, regulations, and regulations within the organization not only restrain personal actions, but also seriously violate personal lives.

As a result, the employees began to contract a kind of morbid psychology, and his sense of security increasingly relied on the laws, regulations, conventions and records about his job. Gradually, he showed ignorant, rigid and even vicious organizational paranoia. He attaches great importance to the internal structure, procedures and forms of the organization, but is indifferent to the quality and efficiency of work performance or public services.

"Mediocre society" puts pressure on officials, requiring them to use correct methods and a cautious attitude to uphold various conventions in the organization. So he blindly adheres to the rigid officialdom, and does not know how to adapt to the established procedures, but blindly obeys.

Because he puts all his energy on obeying the regulations, he has no time to take care of his work performance, let alone provide services to the public.

The bureaucrats sprang up in the hierarchical organization, often thanks to their negative materials. The so-called "competent" means not breaking conventions and making troubles. Sluggish, secretive, and suspicious are the nature of bureaucrats, and they are also their "three S" tricks.

In this way, each puppet in the queue gradually develops a mentality of "only sweeping the snow in front of the individual's door, and not caring about the frost on others". He will do his own work in the camp, but he does not pay attention to his department, company, society, country, depression and corruption.
In order to prevent people from becoming queuing puppets and reverse the decline of the "system depression", Dr. Peter proposed the "Peter's prescription", providing 65 tips to improve the quality of life, allowing readers to realize their full potential through self-expression , Keep moving forward in pursuit of a better life, instead of climbing up to an incompetent position.

1: Peter warms up and exercises—rejuvenating vitality lies in exercise.
2: Peter meditation-take a spiritual holiday every day.
3: Peter's comprehensive review principle-list your favorite activities and implement them selectively.
4: Peter's cleansing plan-to remove the shadows caused by past life.
5: Peter pursues the law-to be a hero in his own mind.
6: Peter's sense of pride-Reward yourself from time to time.
7: Peter's pragmatism-often serving others.
8: Peter's motto-affirm yourself again.
9: Peter's Archives Method ─ ─ Reviewing personal history
10: Peter's Exploring Method—Check the reasons that make you satisfied with the status quo.
11: Peter Extension Method ─ ─ understand the pressure and rewards of positions above you.
12: Peter's Method of Release-Free from the influence of unrelated forces.
13: Peter Polka-Overcoming obstacles is the first step to success.
14: Peter's Personality ── Describe an ideal self.
15: Peter's specialization method ─ ─ focus on the field of his proficiency.
16: Peter Priority Method-choose lasting fun.
17: Peter Potential Method ─ ─ find practical alternatives.
18: Peter's method of prophecy-foreseeing the scope of his own ability.
19: Peter's prediction method-predict the consequences before doing things.
20: Peter's possible method-if possible, try to change careers.
21: Peter Asylum ─ ─ refused to "promote."
22: Peter's short play method-if your boss forces you to accept a position that you lack interest, you pretend to be inadequate.
23: Peter avoids the law-don't take the "people upstairs" too seriously.
24: Peter's artful words-use words to clarify rather than confuse ideas.
25: Peter's pre-thinking—recognize the goal.
26: Peter's Proposal Law ─ Establish standards for measuring achievements.
27: Peter's seminar-to involve employees in the process of setting goals.
28: Peter's Policy Law-Make group goals compatible with personal goals.
29: Peter positioning method-understand the goal from the perspective of need rather than form.
30: Peter Practicality-Set feasible goals.
31: Peter's goal expression method-to appeal to words and actions.
32: Peter Participation Method ─ ─ Let others participate in the process of establishing phased goals.
33: Peter's precise method ─ ─ express the specific connotation of the goal in a clear, visible or observable way.
34: Peter's principle of peace-treat people kindly.
35: Peter's approach-the use of reason in the decision-making process.
36: Peter's time to follow-act decisively and promptly.
37: Peter's balance method-to strike a balance between fear and impatience.
38: Peter's simplification method ─ ─ problem-solving as a decision-oriented guide.
39: Peter Separation Method ─ ─ Make problem solving as a decision-oriented guide.
40: Peter Promise Principle-Beware of making a decision that no one agrees with.
41: Peter's Act of Validity-Dare to act.
42: Peter's Probability-both the scientific method and the gift of prediction can only outline the outline of things.
43: Peter's clear method-before choosing or promoting each person's choice, first recognize the nature of the job.
44: Peter's Proof Method-Try it before buying.
45: Peter's rehearsal method ─ Secretly tested.
46: Peter's drama method-simulation of future conditions.
47: Peter's petition law-Attempt to make a temporary experimental promotion.
48: Peter's advocacy method ─ ─ training new competent candidates.
49: Peter's method of understanding-listen with the third ear.
50: Peter's Teaching Method-Strengthen all humane behaviors of children.
51: Peter's matching method ─ ─ match the effective reinforcement factor with the expected reinforcement factor.
52: Peter Salary Law-As long as you perform well, you can get a salary.
53: Peter's promotion method-when the promotion candidate is sufficient for the new position, he will consider promotion as a reward. .
54: Peter Status Law-systematically improve the status of outstanding employees in their positions for encouragement.
55: Peter's efficiency method-encourage employees to use efficiency as the basis for remuneration.
56: Peter Reward and Punishment Method ─ ─ Rewards and punishments are distinct based on performance.
57: Peter Profit Law ─ ─ Let all employees share profits, so that employees become a harmonious team.
58: Peter Protection Law-Welfare should provide employees with a substantial sense of security and meaningful enjoyment.
59: Peter Gourmet Shop-Let each employee have the right to choose the compensation he or she wants.
60: Peter Purpose Method-If you want to encourage and strengthen the performance of employees, clearly tell them their work goals and provide a reward mechanism that is sufficient to repay their contributions.
61: Peter Participation Method-Rewarding group performance.
62: Peter Authorization Act-to provide opportunities for those who are able to develop their creativity.
63: Peter Praise Method-convey your appreciation for the outstanding performance of your employees.
64: Peter's prestige method ─ Communicate with outstanding employees of all levels.
65: Peter's Approaching Method ─ ─ Through strengthening means, continuously making a goal that is closer to the ideal can transform a person's behavior.
Similar to Parkinson's Theorem, Peter's Principle describes all kinds of ridiculous things that can be seen everywhere in organizations. Liu is engaged in technology development in an IT company. Because of his hard work and willingness to study, he is kind and helpful, and is highly appreciated by his superiors and colleagues. Liu's character is very suitable for his position: he can experiment with various innovations, enjoy his work, and have nothing to do with the world. He was promoted to project director by the company not long ago. Liu was very grateful to his boss for his knowledge of him, and determined to repay his boss with better performance. He worked harder, thinking of more ideas, he always covered all the problems of his subordinates. But not long after taking office, Liu found himself full of difficulties: First, besides being engaged in technical work, he must manage the project team with greater energy. Trivial things made him so busy that he has no time to take care of more. Technical matter. The second is that the work process is very unsatisfactory. I often have to work overtime until late and cannot complete the progress on time. Colleagues complained a lot. Third, many technicians in the group who are older than themselves are not convinced of themselves, and they are embarrassed to say something. As a result, his boss, colleagues, and himself were all dissatisfied, and Liu turned from an excellent technical expert to an incompetent project supervisor.

Everyone in business, industry, politics, administration, military, religion, and education will encounter the problem of job adaptation and will be troubled by Peter's principle. For example, the presidents of all prestigious universities are almost the same academicians of the two academies, but do they really know how to manage? To take a step back, even if they know how to manage, how much impact does management work have on their own work—teaching and scientific research? Do school administrators have to be those on the top of these academic pyramids? As an academician, is it not clear to the country whether the food and drink of tens of thousands of food and drink and the specialization in cutting-edge scientific research are more important to the country?

Peter's principle states that the promotion of staff or cadres must focus on the potential and attach importance to the match between people and posts. The current results cannot be used as a reason for improvement, but to see whether he can perform at a higher level.

For an organization, once a considerable part of the organization's personnel are pushed to its incompetent level, it will cause the organization's personnel to become superfluous and inefficient, leading to the mediocre people getting ahead and development stagnation. Therefore, this requires a change to the company’s employee promotion mechanism that simply "determines promotion based on contribution". It cannot be inferred that a person must be competent for a higher-level position just because a person does a good job at a certain level. It is necessary to establish a scientific and reasonable personnel selection mechanism, objectively evaluate the ability and level of each employee, and arrange employees to positions that they can perform. Do not regard job promotion as the main reward method for employees. A more effective reward mechanism should be established, and salary increases and vacations should be used more as reward methods. Sometimes promotion of an employee to a position where he cannot give full play to his talents is not only not a reward for the employees, but also makes the employees unable to give full play to their talents and also brings losses to the company.

For individuals, although each of us is looking forward to constant promotion, we should not use climbing as our only motivation. Instead of struggling to support and at a loss in a position that is not fully qualified, it is better to find a position where you can do your job well and give full play to your expertise.

Peter's principle solves the mystery of all classes. All hierarchical system organizations, such as business, industry, politics, administration, military, religion, and education, are controlled by Peter's principle. The most obvious is the current personnel system of our government. China’s relevant cadre appointments and the government’s current civil service system clearly point out that positions promoted to a certain level must be held in the next level (or half-level) for a certain number of years, and they should be promoted level by level, and the selection range should be minimized. , The final result is as deduced by Peter's principle: most leadership positions are held by incompetent people.

Since the enterprise also implements a hierarchical system, the same hidden danger exists.

This can explain: Why is the government inefficient? Those who are leaders do not do things, and those who do specific things are not leaders; why are state-owned enterprises not doing well? Enterprises apply the current administrative level system of the government; why does bureaucracy exist in every society? and many more.

If you simply divide the people of the enterprise into two categories, there will be two categories of people. Category 1: Can be competent for the current job, but is basically "finalized" and does not have the quality of self-improvement, and can only do the current job, and it is a mistake to go up one level; Category 2: Not only can be competent for the current job , Also have the qualities and abilities of self-learning, self-summarization, and self-improvement, and can continuously improve their abilities, so as to be competent for all positions.

It can be seen that the company’s employment methods can be simply summarized as: discover and train the second type of people. The conclusion derived from this is: we must fully realize the importance of human resource management, and operate effectively, discover (including recruitment and internal development of the enterprise) and train successors for each position in the enterprise, and form sustainable development in human resources potential.

Promotion is the transfer of an employee from a previous position to a position that requires more functions and greater responsibilities. Generally, higher status and more wages follow. The motivation for improvement may be a reward for outstanding work performance in the past, or it may be the company's use of personal talents and abilities.

According to the insights of the book "Peter Principle", managers are sometimes elevated to a level that they are not competent. In particular, there are situations in which managers have achieved achievements in their positions, which have allowed him to be promoted to higher positions, but the talents required for this position are often not available to him. Such a promotion will make the manager unable to do the job. This phenomenon is most prominent when the general manager is selected from managers of sales, finance, and production departments.

Because outstanding employees are continuously promoted from their original positions until they are incompetent, this process is often one-way and irreversible, that is to say, few promoted persons will return to their original positions. . Therefore, the final result of such "promotion" is that most positions in the company are held by incompetent people. This inference may sound ridiculous, but it is by no means alarmist, and it is indeed the case in many companies. This kind of phenomenon will also produce another sequelae, that is, incompetent leaders may block the way to promote possible competent people, and the harm is obvious.

Although we must pay attention to the growth possibilities of managers and stimulate their potential by providing more development space and other means, the Peter principle can be used as a warning: do not select and promote lightly. There are three main measures to solve this problem: First, the improved standard requires more attention to potential than just performance. It should be based on whether they are qualified for the future position, not just whether they are good in the current position. Second, being able to go up and down must not be just empty words, and such a benign mechanism must be truly formed in the enterprise. An incompetent manager may be a good supervisor. Only by using this mechanism to find each person's most competent role and tap each person's greatest potential can the company "make the best use of its talents." Third, in order to carefully examine whether a person is qualified for a higher position, it is best to use temporary and informal "promotion" methods to observe his abilities and performance in order to avoid the negative effects of demotion. . For example, setting up the position of assistant manager, assigning greater responsibilities in organizations such as committees or project teams, and letting him act as an agent in special circumstances.

The ways of employing people for successful companies include: 1. Appropriate introduction of foreign talents, the advantage is to use existing talents to avoid the consequences involved in the "Peter Principle"; 2. Gradually improve within the company, pay attention to potential, most important positions The person who can do the job.