And Once They're There, They Never Leave

Since 1969, when it was introduced in a best-selling book, the Peter Principle -- workers are promoted to their level of incompetence -- has been considered a reasonable explanation for why so many managers are bad at their jobs despite having been good enough to get promoted in the first place. But only in recent years have researchers looked into whether it's true. Guess what? It IS true. And there are also reasonable explanations for why it persists, and why great salespeople, for example, can make poor sales managers. The skills are different, for one thing. But if you hire someone who has great people skills but wasn't a great salesperson, the staff will not respect that manager. So it's unclear what corporations can do to hire the right people. Maybe train promoted employees in management skills? (BBC)

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