The Peter Principle and the Limits of our Current Understanding of Organizational Incompetence

This article discusses the implications of the Peter Principle, as it reflects the intriguing reality of the most organizational systems. Deliberately or not, the latter frequently encourage individuals to climb to their level of incompetence ending up in a situation in which most job positions are occupied by employees incapable of carrying out their duties, and leaving the few remaining ones to actually accomplish organizational goals. The article containsa comprehensive analysis of previous research and, based on these findings, develops several research directionswhich would bring to light new insights for the effectiveness of organizations and their HR strategies.