Peter principle is classic book on promotions . It says that every person rises to his level of incompetency .That is people in a hierarchical organizations keep getting promoted till they reach a level for which they are no fit/ready/skilled .
The principle and book by the same name is from the 70s .And it still holds true…
And before you think of one particular person in your hierarchy where this principle has manifested , the right question to ask is how can we ourselves escape this.
The fundamental problem problem is modern workplace is that promotion i.e rising up in the hierarchy is the only mainstream way to grow . However with each role change the skill demands change .There are organizations and individuals who are aware of this and take effort to skill people up.
At the same time there are a lot who miss the target . For a change , just ask yourself and your friends if you were told and trained about the shift needed in your role ,the last time you were promoted to Tech Lead ,Manager, Architect or whatever junior role you were promoted to 🙂 .
Another approach some companies take is that of internal startup that shakes up the culture of static-stable-hierarchical way of working towards competitive-renewal-delivery based reorganization .
There are few more variations of these things where companies essentially try to avoid power ladder , salary ladder and value ladder . All of which feed into peter principal .However avoiding these ladder is tough ask so Peter principle keeps manifesting at workplace .
Read the book ,its good .