The Peter Principle is the principle that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), and there they remain.
In an organizational structure, the Peter Principle's practical application allows assessment of the potential of an employee for a promotion based on performance in the current job, i.e. members of a hierarchical organization eventually are promoted to their highest level of competence, after which further promotion raises them to incompetence. That level is the employee's “level of incompetence” where the employee has no chance of further promotion, thus reaching his or her career's ceiling in an organization. The employee's incompetence is not necessarily exposed as a result of the higher-ranking position being more difficult－simply, that job is different from the job in which the employee previously excelled, and thus requires different work skills, which the employee usually does not possess.
Do you agree with the principle? Please give reasons for any decision and develop it into a short essay of about 400-500 words with a proper title.
Of The Peter Principle
The Peter Principle was first published in a book in 1968, and described the fact that in any hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. In my opinion, I totally agree with this principle, although it may sound useless but this principle does make sense. For example, if Tony is a great engineer, he would soon promote to senior engineer. If he keeps doing a great job, he probably would be promoted to senior associate. So what happens now? If he's mediocre as a senior associate, he's likely to stay at this position forever. In fact, he's not getting promoted anymore and although he doesn't like being mediocre and excel down as engineer, he's afraid of falling back down the position.
Job inadequacy is everywhere. We can see indecisive politicians posing like resolute politicians. Authority figures who pretend to be reliable end up blaming the situation for causing the failure. There are countless lazy and arrogant civil servants. The military generals disguised their cowardice with grandiose rhetoric; and rulers are not born to rule by nature. All of these examples above can be found in the long river of history.
Peter noted that people's incapability maybe because the required skills are different, but not more difficult. For instance, a great architect could be an incompetent manager for having no interpersonal skills necessary to lead a team. Peter argued that incompetent manager will do the least damage to competent employee's productivity if we maintain the benign illusion that they have a bright future.
However, let's look at the other side of the coin now. According to Peter Principle story, the senior associate is trapped in his position. Generally speaking, people who are trapped feel insecure. He tends to acquire a self-protection mechanism by refusing to admit his incapability and by avoiding stress or confrontation. He becomes insecure with his future and therefore refuses to compete with the fact that the world is changing fast. Avoiding the reality and lying to himself would only make the manager even more incompetent.
So here are some suggestions we should follow concluded from The Peter Principle:
Firstly, don't climb the ladder blindly and examine yourself. Ask yourself if your desired position is right for you. Avoid formalism. Secondly, find yourself a suitable place, give full play to your potential and talents, and do what you are best at. Thirdly, set the right values and don't base your values on so-called achievements or honors.
All in all, The Peter Principle is not only instructive in workplace, but also helpful for leading our lives in the right direction.
文章要求自己是否支持彼得原理，并且给出支持或反驳的理由。范文首先在开头介绍了彼得原理的内容，然后表示自己是支持这一原理的观点，并给出了工程师的例子。第二段又接着例证，说明工作不称职的情况确实无处不在。第三段指明，工作不称职并非一定是因为工作岗位难度提升，而是不具备所需的技能，例如管理者缺乏沟通技巧。第四段在原理上进行了延伸，指出如果一个人在不适合的高位上工作，他可能变得不安且逃避事实。第五第六段便根据以上的内容，提出了自己的看法，即彼得原理带来的启示。最后再对全文进行概括，阐明彼得原理的优点。