The Peter Principle Quotes

“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle

“In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle

“Good followers do not become good leaders.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“in most hierarchies, super-competence is more objectionable than incompetence.” He warned that extremely skilled and productive employees often face criticism, and are fired if they don’t start performing worse. Their presence “disrupts and therefore violates the first commandment of hierarchical life: the hierarchy must be preserved.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Given enough time—and assuming the existence of enough ranks in the hierarchy—each employee rises to, and remains at, his level of incompetence.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“As individuals we tend to climb to our levels of incompetence. We behave as though up is better and more is better, and yet all around us we see the tragic victims of this mindless escalation.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Any government, whether it is a democracy, a dictatorship, a communistic or free enterprise bureaucracy, will fall when its hierarchy reaches an intolerable state of maturity.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Slump, and the world slumps with you. Push and you push alone.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“He must examine his objectives and see that true progress is achieved through moving forward to a better way of life, rather than upward to total life incompetence.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“In any economic or political crisis, one thing is certain. Many learned experts will prescribe many different remedies”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Three Observations        1) The computer may be incompetent in itself—that is, unable to do regularly and accurately the work for which it was designed. This kind of incompetence can never be eliminated, because the Peter Principle applies in the plants where computers are designed and manufactured.        2) Even when competent in itself, the computer vastly magnifies the results of incompetence in its owners or operators.        3) The computer, like a human employee, is subject to the Peter Principle. If it does good work at first, there is a strong tendency to promote it to more responsible tasks, until it reaches its level of incompetence.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“a staff increase may produce a temporary improvement, but the promotion process eventually produces its effect on the newcomers and they, too, rise to their levels of incompetence.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“The efficiency of a hierarchy is inversely proportional to its Maturity Quotient, M.Q.    MQ = No. of employees at level of incompetence × 100 Total no. of employees in hierarchy    Obviously, when MQ reaches 100, no useful work will be accomplished at all.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and Nature meant to mere Mankind, Reason’s whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense, Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.    (Ibid., 11. 77–80)”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“I have noticed that, with few exceptions, men bungle their affairs. Everywhere I see incompetence rampant, incompetence triumphant...I have accepted the universality of incompetence.”
― Raymond Hull, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“the main function of a pseudo-promotion is to deceive people outside the hierarchy. When this is achieved, the maneuver is counted a success.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Never stand when you can sit; never walk when you can ride; never Push when you can Pull.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Dr. Peter observed that one reason so many employees are incompetent is that the skills required to get a job often have nothing to do with what is required to do the job itself. The skills required to run a great political campaign have little to do with the skills required to govern.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“The more conceited members of the race think in terms of an endless ascent—or promotion ad infinitum. I would point out that, sooner or later, man must reach his level of life-incompetence.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Nobody understands how the incessant pressure from above and the incurable incompetence below make it utterly impossible for me to do an adequate job and keep a clean desk.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Many a man, under the old and the new systems, has made the upward step from candidate to legislator, only to achieve his level of incompetence.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Incompetence,” he argued, “knows no barrier of time or place.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“The computer may be incompetent in itself--that is, unable to do the work for which it was designed. This kind of incompetence can never be eliminated, because the Peter Principle applies in the plants where computers are designed and manufactured.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle

“All, from police forces to armed forces, are rigid hierarchies of salaried employees, and all are necessarily cumbered with incompetents who cannot do their existing work, cannot be promoted, yet cannot be removed.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Employees in a hierarchy do not really object to incompetence (Peter’s Paradox): they merely gossip about incompetence to mask their envy of employees who have Pull.”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong

“Seorang yang kompeten dalam level tertentu belum tentu kompeten pada level berikutnya”
― Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle

“W. Irving points out that "Your true dull minds are generally preferred for public employ, and especially promoted to city honors." He did not realize that a mind may well be bright enough for a subordinate position, yet appear dull when promoted to prominence, just as a candle is all very well to light a dinner table, but proves inadequate if placed on a lamppost to illuminate a street corner.”
― Laurence J. Peter & Raymond Hull, The Peter Principle