'The Peter Principle has cosmic implications.' - New York Times 'The classic book which warns of the dangers of over-promotion' The Times In a hierarchy, every employee rises to the level of their own incompetence. This simple maxim, defined by this classic book over 40 years ago, has become a beacon of truth in the world of work. From the civil service to multinational companies to hospital management, it explains why things constantly go wrong: promotion up a hierarchy inevitably leads to over-promotion and incompetence. Through barbed anecdotes and wry humour the authors define the problem and show how anyone, whether at the top or bottom of the career ladder, can avoid its pitfalls. Or, indeed, avoid promotion entirely!

The classic #1 New York Times bestseller that answers the age-old questionWhy is incompetence so maddeningly rampant and so vexingly triumphant?

The Peter Principle, the eponymous law Dr. Laurence J. Peter coined, explains that everyone in a hierarchy--from the office intern to the CEO, from the low-level civil servant to a nation's president--will inevitably rise to his or her level of incompetence. Dr. Peter explains why incompetence is at the root of everything we endeavor to do--why schools bestow ignorance, why governments condone anarchy, why courts dispense injustice, why prosperity causes unhappiness, and why utopian plans never generate utopias.

With the wit of Mark Twain, the psychological acuity of Sigmund Freud, and the theoretical impact of Isaac Newton, Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull's The Peter Principle brilliantly explains how incompetence and its accompanying symptoms, syndromes, and remedies define the world and the work we do in it.