how companies avoid the peter principle
tom schuller coined the phrase the paula principle theorizing that women tend to work in positions below their level of competence due to gender discrimination lack of professional networks and balancing work and home responsibilities 3examplein 2018 economists alan benson danielle li and kelly shue analyzed sales workers performance and promotion practices at 214 american businesses to test the peter principle they found that companies promoted employees to management positions based on their performance in previous positions rather than on managerial potential 4consistent with the peter principle the researchers found that high performing sales employees were more likely to be promoted and that they were also more likely to perform poorly as managers leading to considerable costs to the businesses 