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Revisiting the Peter Principle

By Sonya Clark

In the satirical book The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull (1969), Peter coins a new phrase “The Peter Principle,” as his encompassing theory about incompetence in workplaces. Attempting to encapsulate the phenomena of incompetence often found in organizations, this rather tongue-and-cheek bestseller denotes numerous recognizable examples in workplaces, including those in politics and education.

Arguably, this clev

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