The Sunday Mail
A concept some management students come across is the Peter Principle.
It comes from a satirical 1969 work of the same title by Laurence J Peter.
He posited that the reason why many organisations stagnate and then start declining is because people are simply promoted above their ideas.
This means a person competent at a particular task is rewarded with promotion to a higher station where they cannot deliver.
And for a number of reasons, chief of which is that people are rarely fired for mere incompetence, they endure in their new, elevated roles until compulsory retirement or mortal progression take them — and the rest of the organisation — out of misery.
Laurence J Peter put it is thus: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
Most people, we dare hope, are aware when they are being promoted above their level of ideas.
Unfortunately, it is usually difficult to turn down promotions, even when we are aware that we will be abject at the new assignment.
The human desire for success and recognition often put paid to any sense of humility.
The smarter incompetents quickly learn the art of “creative incompetence” in their new roles: they find ways of surviving and looking relevant by doing what are actually irrelevant and essentially non-productive things.
These can include merely coming to work earlier than everyone else but not really doing anything once seated in the office.
They also entail staying later than everyone else to create the impression that they are putting in the hard hours.
We see this everywhere, not just in business.
And unlike in business where sometimes the worst that can happen is falling revenue for a company, in politics and public administration the promotion of people to their level of incompetence can have dire ramifications for a nation.
Examples abound in the public sector, which is why it takes the City of Harare ages — even after allegedly inflating costs by tens of millions of US dollars – to finish works at Morton Jaffray so that residents of the capital do not have to suffer water cuts at least twice every week for months.
It is also evident in PSMAS collecting millions from subscribers who cannot get medical treatment at facilities of their choice as per right.
It is further evident in hospital administrators who cannot innovate, like Dr Obadiah Moyo has over the years, and instead can only tell the public that “if Government doesn’t give us the money we will have to shut down”.
We see it in the mess at Zimra, NetOne, NSSA and several other parastatals and State-owned enterprises, the mess at many local authorities, the lethargy at the National Prosecuting Authority and Attorney-General’s Office that senior judicial officers have publicly noted, and the general disinterestedness notable at a number of Government offices.
Promotion to levels of incompetence is not confined to some members of the bureaucracy and the ruling class.
It is also there, and in even greater measure, in opposition political circles.
The very notion of Mr Morgan Tsvangirai as the leader of the largest opposition party in Zimbabwe is testament to promotion above the level of one’s ideas.
The fact that Dr Joice Mujuru, touted as a political force by some media houses, can go to court to challenge something that does not exist and excoriate an illegality that has not been committed points to the astuteness of Laurence J Peter’s principle.
The elevation of a church-less pastor into something of a demigod simply because he cried and wrapped himself in a national flag after he failed to budget for his children’s school fees indicates a society that glorifies incompetence.
Examples abound in business, public administration and politics.
Which is why it is imperative that the National Code on Corporate Governance (ZimCode) is seen to be implemented.
This is also why it is important that the legislature — if it can overcome its own notorious over-promotion to incompetence — urgently start working on provisions for a Code of Conduct for senior public officers as called for by Section 106 of the Constitution.
The over-promotion rife in our society is the reason why we need to see the impact of Government’s much vaunted Results-Based Management system.
Dare we also ask Zanu-PF to update the nation on its own initiative to carry out performance appraisals of its Members of Parliament?
And dare we ask the opposition MDC-T if they have even thought of implementing such a system for its MPs?
Incompetence is becoming a national malady, and not confronting it will be our death.
Editorial Comment: Living cushy in blissful incompetence
The Sunday Mail
A concept some management students come across is the Peter Principle.
It comes from a satirical 1969 work of the same title by Laurence J Peter.
He posited that the reason why many organisations stagnate and then start declining is because people are simply promoted above their ideas.
This means a person competent at a particular task is rewarded with promotion to a higher station where they cannot deliver.
And for a number of reasons, chief of which is that people are rarely fired for mere incompetence, they endure in their new, elevated roles until compulsory retirement or mortal progression take them — and the rest of the organisation — out of misery.
Laurence J Peter put it is thus: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
Most people, we dare hope, are aware when they are being promoted above their level of ideas.
Unfortunately, it is usually difficult to turn down promotions, even when we are aware that we will be abject at the new assignment.
The human desire for success and recognition often put paid to any sense of humility.
The smarter incompetents quickly learn the art of “creative incompetence” in their new roles: they find ways of surviving and looking relevant by doing what are actually irrelevant and essentially non-productive things.
These can include merely coming to work earlier than everyone else but not really doing anything once seated in the office.
They also entail staying later than everyone else to create the impression that they are putting in the hard hours.
We see this everywhere, not just in business.
And unlike in business where sometimes the worst that can happen is falling revenue for a company, in politics and public administration the promotion of people to their level of incompetence can have dire ramifications for a nation.
Examples abound in the public sector, which is why it takes the City of Harare ages — even after allegedly inflating costs by tens of millions of US dollars – to finish works at Morton Jaffray so that residents of the capital do not have to suffer water cuts at least twice every week for months.
It is also evident in PSMAS collecting millions from subscribers who cannot get medical treatment at facilities of their choice as per right.
It is further evident in hospital administrators who cannot innovate, like Dr Obadiah Moyo has over the years, and instead can only tell the public that “if Government doesn’t give us the money we will have to shut down”.
We see it in the mess at Zimra, NetOne, NSSA and several other parastatals and State-owned enterprises, the mess at many local authorities, the lethargy at the National Prosecuting Authority and Attorney-General’s Office that senior judicial officers have publicly noted, and the general disinterestedness notable at a number of Government offices.
Promotion to levels of incompetence is not confined to some members of the bureaucracy and the ruling class.
It is also there, and in even greater measure, in opposition political circles.
The very notion of Mr Morgan Tsvangirai as the leader of the largest opposition party in Zimbabwe is testament to promotion above the level of one’s ideas.
The fact that Dr Joice Mujuru, touted as a political force by some media houses, can go to court to challenge something that does not exist and excoriate an illegality that has not been committed points to the astuteness of Laurence J Peter’s principle.
The elevation of a church-less pastor into something of a demigod simply because he cried and wrapped himself in a national flag after he failed to budget for his children’s school fees indicates a society that glorifies incompetence.
Examples abound in business, public administration and politics.
Which is why it is imperative that the National Code on Corporate Governance (ZimCode) is seen to be implemented.
This is also why it is important that the legislature — if it can overcome its own notorious over-promotion to incompetence — urgently start working on provisions for a Code of Conduct for senior public officers as called for by Section 106 of the Constitution.
The over-promotion rife in our society is the reason why we need to see the impact of Government’s much vaunted Results-Based Management system.
Dare we also ask Zanu-PF to update the nation on its own initiative to carry out performance appraisals of its Members of Parliament?
And dare we ask the opposition MDC-T if they have even thought of implementing such a system for its MPs?
Incompetence is becoming a national malady, and not confronting it will be our death.
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