IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v16y1970i12pb800-b811.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dynamics of the Peter Principle

Author

Listed:
  • Julius Kane

    (University of British Columbia)

Abstract

In this paper, a realistic Markovian model of hierarchies is considered which reveals that under suitable conditions The Peter Principle applies. That is, above a certain critical hierarchical level, performance decreases slowly, but steadily, with increasing level. This can be true even if there is effective screening and promotion is by merit, rather than seniority. Screening procedures which are uniform, realistic and selective can actually decrease relative performance after promotion. Criteria for the manifestation of this phenomenon will be presented. Basically, it is more likely to manifest itself in bureaucracies having low internal mobility and appears when people who are passed over for promotion improve more with another year's experience than those promoted to new jobs which are unfamiliar and more challenging. Mathematically, the controlling parameter is the ratio of two eigenvalues, each the largest eigenvalue of a 3 \times 3 matrix. These eigenvalues are respectively those of two transition matrices, one describing reclassification of successful candidates after promotion, and the other, the reclassification of unsuccessful candidates.

Suggested Citation

  • Julius Kane, 1970. "Dynamics of the Peter Principle," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(12), pages 800-811, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:16:y:1970:i:12:p:b800-b811
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.16.12.B800
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.16.12.B800
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.16.12.B800?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pluchino, Alessandro & Rapisarda, Andrea & Garofalo, Cesare, 2010. "The Peter principle revisited: A computational study," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(3), pages 467-472.
    2. João Ricardo Faria & Franklin G. Mixon, 2020. "The Peter and Dilbert Principles applied to academe," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 115-132, June.
    3. Cheng, Yuan & Chang, Meng & Xue, Yanbo, 2020. "A computational study of promotion dynamics and organizational efficiency," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 560(C).
    4. Pawel Sobkowicz, 2010. "Dilbert-Peter Model of Organization Effectiveness: Computer Simulations," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 13(4), pages 1-4.
    5. Fetta, A.G. & Harper, P.R. & Knight, V.A. & Vieira, I.T. & Williams, J.E., 2012. "On the Peter Principle: An agent based investigation into the consequential effects of social networks and behavioural factors," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(9), pages 2898-2910.
    6. Farias, B. & Rapôso, O. & Penna, T.J.P. & Girardi, D., 2021. "The Peter Principle and learning: A safer way to promote workers," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 576(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:16:y:1970:i:12:p:b800-b811. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.