Status: Developed
Type: Established / borrowed
One-sentence definition
Peter Principle: In a hierarchy, people tend to be promoted for success in their current role until they reach a role whose demands exceed the abilities that earned the promotions.
Why the term is useful
It exposes a category error in advancement: excellent performance in one job is evidence about that job, not automatic evidence of fitness for a different one.
Origin / coined by
The management concept was developed by educator Laurence J. Peter and popularized with Raymond Hull in the 1969 book The Peter Principle.[1]
Example
A brilliant salesperson becomes a manager because of exceptional sales numbers, even though coaching, coordinating, and evaluating others require different abilities.
- Petered-Out Principle
- Promotion-fit mismatch
- Individual-contributor career path
Sources and notes
Research using sales workers across 131 firms found evidence consistent with the principle: firms often prioritized current sales performance in promotion decisions even when that came at the expense of traits associated with managerial performance.[2]
A useful distinction: the classic Peter Principle concerns promotion beyond competence; the Petered-Out Principle concerns promotion beyond motivation.
Developed concept · open to refinement