The Peter Principle and learning: A safer way to promote workers

B. Farias, O. Rapôso, T.J.P. Penna and D. Girardi

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2021, vol. 576, issue C

Abstract: In 1969, the psychologist Laurence J. Peter made a observation about how organizations promote its members: “The members of an organization climb the hierarchy until the level of maximum incompetence”. The first computational study on this principle suggests that promoting members randomly is the safest strategy. Here, we modify the original model adding the diversity of competences and learning. Our results suggest that, even though the Peter principle negatively affects the efficiency of a business, this effect is less drastic than the one suggested in the previous work when adding the new ingredients. The strategy of promoting the individual with the best performance in a level really seems to be the best strategy, recovering the common sense hypothesis.

Keywords: Peter Principle; Hierarchical systems; Agent-based models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:576:y:2021:i:c:s0378437121002958

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2021.126023

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