The Social Dynamics of the Peter Principle

• Main Author: P. Fiedor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology 2015-01-01
• Series: Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review
• Subjects: Peter Principle; Organisations Efficiency; Agent Based Models
• Online Access: http://www.jestr.org/downloads/Volume8Issue1/fulltext108115.pdf
• ISSN: 1791-2377; 1791-2377

In this paper the author presents a critique of the recent computational studies looking at efficient promotion strategies in hierarchical organisations [1, 2], and presents his own study, more applicable for socio-economic systems. While previous research based on the Peter Principle [3] is an interesting and fresh (though grounds have been laid by [4]) view on the problem of organisational efficiency, they do lack psychological and sociological basis so important in social sciences [5, 6]. Therefore the advice saying that it may be beneficial to promote worst employees or employees at random is not based on sound methodological grounds of social sciences [7]. In this paper two mechanisms are introduced to the model proposed by [1], which bring the computational study closer to real life organisations, rendering the analysis more enlightening for them and their strategies. The first introduces social dynamics allowing agents to conform to the perceived expectations of the organisation, and the latter frees the model from univariate analysis of the competence of an agent together with the crude mechanisms for its propagation between positions, exchanging it for multivariate analysis with mechanism based on the classic research by Henri Fayol [8]. The results of these simulations allow the author to conclude that despite the fact that Peter was right in principle; in real organisations the best way to promote employees is to choose the best employees, which is in agreement with the reality of most organisations [9]. The paper underlines the need to use the methodology of social science in econophysics.