what is the peter principle 
the peter principle theorizes that employees in most organizational hierarchies automatically rise through promotion to higher positions however competent employees will be promoted but will ultimately assume positions for which they are incompetent according to the peter principle competence is rewarded with promotion because competence in the form of employee output is noticeable and recognized however once an employee reaches a position in which they are incompetent they are no longer evaluated based on their outputinvestopedia nono floreshistorycanadian educational scholar and sociologist dr laurence j peter defined the theory in his 1968 book the peter principle he surmised that an employee s inability to fulfill the requirements of a position they are promoted to may not be general incompetence but is because the position requires different skills than those the employee possesses 1 for example an employee who competently completes assembly tasks may be promoted to management without proving to be a good manager first dr peter revised the adage the cream rises to the top by stating the cream rises until it sours in other words excellent employee performance is inevitably promoted to the point where the employee s performance is no longer satisfactory he also argued that employees tend to remain in positions in which they are incompetent because mere incompetence is rarely sufficient to cause the employee to be fired 2productivity and morale