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Karel GoldmannCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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/ 91
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F p antes
EX MOOSGOSOSGojgogoons
ee esteste estes
AY Me Uc oe SC ote Laurence J. Peter
&
Raymond Hull
The Peter
Principle
Buccaneer Books
Cutchogue, New York This book is dedicated to all those who,
working, playing, loving, living and
dying at their Level of Incompetence,
provided the data for the founding and
development of the salutary science of
Hterarchiology.
Copyright © 1969 by William Morrow & Co., Inc.
Published by arrangement with William Morrow & Co.
International Standard Book Number: 1-56849-] 61-1
For ordering information, contact:
Buccaneer Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 168
Cutchogue, N.Y. 11935
(631) 734-5724, Fax (631) 734-7920
www. BuccaneerBooks.com They saved others: themselves they could not save. — CHAPTER l.
onavwr vp bd
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Contents
INTRODUCTION by Raymond Hull 9
The Peter Principle 19
The Principle in Action 28
Apparent Exceptions 36
Pull & Promotion 53
Push & Promotion 59
Followers & Leaders 64
Hierarchiology & Politics 69
Hints & Foreshadowings 79
Earlier writers speak about the Principle,
including O. Khayyam, A. Pope, S, Smith,
W. Irving, E. Dickinson, P. B. Shelley,
K. Marx, S. Freud, S. Potter and
C. N. Parkinson
The Psychology of Hierarchiology 91
Peter’s Spiral 103
The Pathology of Success 108
Non-Medical Indices of Final Place-
ment 116
Health & Happiness at Zero PQ 128
Possibility or Pipe Dream
Creative Incompetence 139
How to Avoid the Ultimate Promotion
The Darwinian Extension 150
GLOSSARY 169
A NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 175 Introduction
by RAYMOND HULL
As AN author and journalist, I have had exceptional op-
portunities to study the workings of civilized society. I have
investigated and written about government, industry, busi-
ness, education and the arts. I have talked to, and listened
carefully to, members of many trades and professions, people
of lofty, middling and lowly stations.
L have noticed that, with few exceptions, men bungle their
affairs. Everywhere I see incompetence rampant, incompe-
tence triumphant.
I have seen a three-quarter-mile-long highway bridge col-
lapse and fall into the sea because, despite checks and dou-
ble-checks, someone had botched the design of a supporting
pier.
I have seen town planners supervising the development of
a city on the flood plain of a great river, where it is certain
to be periodically inundated.
Lately I read about the collapse of three giant cooling
towers at a British power-station: they cost a million dollars
each, but were not strong enough to withstand a good blow
of wind.
I noted with interest that the indoor baseball stadium at
Houston, Texas, was found on completion to be peculiarly
ill-suited to baseball: on bright days, fielders could not see
fly balls against the glare of the skylights.
I observe that appliance manufacturers, as regular policy,
9 10 Introduction
establish regional service depots in the expectation—justi-
fied by experience—that many of their machines will break
down during the warranty period.
Having listened to umpteen motorists’ complaints about
faults in their new cars, I was not surprised to learn that
roughly one-fifth of the automobiles produced by major
manufacturers in recent years have been found to contain
potentially dangerous production defects.
Please do not assume that I am a jaundiced ultra-conserv-
ative, crying down contemporary men and things just be-
cause they are contemporary. Incompetence knows no bar-
riers of time or place.
Macaulay gives a picture, drawn from a report by Samuel
Pepys, of the British navy in 1684. “The naval administra-
tion was a prodigy of wastefulness, corruption, ignorance,
and indolence . . . no estimate could be trusted . . . no
i
a
1
fr,
aoe
In the expectation that many of their machines will break down
during the warranty period.
i
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ta
['
I ntroduction 11
contract was performed . . . no check was enforced. .. .
Some of the new men of war were so rotten that, unless
speedily repaired, they would go down at their moorings.
The sailors were paid with so little punctuality that they
were glad to find some usurer who would purchase their
tickets at forty percent discount. Most of the ships which
were afloat were commanded by men who had not been bred
to the sea.”
Wellington, examining the roster of officers assigned to
him for the 1810 campaign in Portugal, said, “I only hope
that when the enemy reads the list of their names, he trem-
bles as I do.”
Civil War General Richard Taylor, speaking of the Battle
of the Seven Days, remarked, “Confederate commanders
knew no more about the topography . . . within a day’s
march of the city of Richmond than they did about Central
Africa.”
Robert E. Lee once complained bitterly, “I cannot have
my orders carried out.” |
For most of World War II the British armed forces fought
with explosives much inferior, weight for weight, to those
in German shells and bombs. Early in 1940, British scien-
tists knew that the cheap, simple addition of a little powdered
aluminum would double the power of existing explosives,
yet the knowledge was not applied till late in 1943.
In the same war, the Australian commander of a hospital
ship checked the vessel’s water tanks after a refit and found
them painted inside with red lead. It would have poisoned
every man aboard. .
These things—and hundreds more like them—I have seen
and read about and heard about. I have accepted the univer-
sality of incompetence. 12 Introduction
I have stopped being surprised when a moon rocket fails
to get off the ground because something is forgotten, some-
thing breaks, something doesn’t work, or something ex-
plodes prematurely.
I am no longer amazed to observe that a government-
employed marriage counselor is a homosexual.
I now expect that statesmen will prove incompetent to
fulfill their campaign pledges. I assume that if they do any-
thing, it will probably be to carry out the pledges of their
opponents. |
This incompetence would be annoying enough if it were
confined to public works, politics, space travel and such vast,
remote fields of human endeavor. But it is not. It is close at
hand, too—an ever-present, pestiferous nuisance.
As I write this page, the woman in the next apartment is
talking on the telephone. I can hear every word she says. It
is 10 p.M. and the man in the apartment on the other side
of me has gone to bed early with a cold. I hear his intermit-
tent cough. When he turns on his bed I hear the springs
squeak. I don’t live in a cheap rooming house: this is an
expensive, modern, concrete high-rise apartment block.
What’s the matter with the people who designed and built it?
The other day a friend of mine bought a hacksaw, took it
home and began to cut an iron bolt. At his second stroke,
the saw blade snapped, and the adjustable joint of the frame
broke so that it could not be used again.
Last week I wanted to use a tape recorder on the stage of
a new high-school auditorium. I could get no power for the
machine. The building engineer told me that, in a year’s
occupancy, he had been unable to find a switch that would
turn on current in the base plugs on stage. He was beginning
to think they were not wired up at all.
Introduction 13
This morning I set out to buy a desk lamp. In a large
furniture and appliance store I found a lamp that I liked.
The salesman was going to wrap it, but I asked him to test it
first. (I’m getting cautious nowadays.) He was obviously
unused to testing electrical equipment, because it took him
a long time to find a socket. Eventually he plugged the lamp
in, then could not switch it on! He tried another lamp of the
same style: that would not switch on, either. The whole
consignment had defective switches. I left.
I recently ordered six hundred square feet of fiber glass
insulation for a cottage I am renovating. I stood over the
clerk at the order desk to make sure she got the quantity
right. In vain! The building supply firm billed me for seven
hundred square feet, and delivered nine hundred square
feet! |
Education, often touted as a cure for all ills, is apparently
no cure for incompetence. Incompetence runs riot in the
halls of education. One high-school graduate in three cannot
read at normal fifth-grade level. It is now commonplace for
colleges to be giving reading lessons to freshmen. In some
colleges, twenty percent of freshmen cannot read well
enough to understand their textbooks!
I receive mail from a large university. Fifteen months ago
I changed my address. I sent the usual notice to the univer-
sity: my mail kept going to the old address. After two more
change-of-address notices and a phone call, I made a per-
sonal visit. I pointed with my finger to the wrong address
in their records, dictated the new address and watched a
secretary take it down. The mail still went to the old address.
Two days ago there was a new development. I received a
phone call from the woman who had succeeded me in my
old apartment and who, of course, had been receiving my 14 Introduction
mail from the university. She herself has just moved again,
and my mail from the university has now started going to
her new address! | :
As I said, I became resigned to this omnipresent incom-
petence. Yet I thought that, if only its cause could be discov-
ered, then a cure might be found. So I began asking ques-
tions.
I heard plenty of theories.
A banker blamed the schools: “Kids nowadays don’t Jearn
efficient work habits.”
A teacher blamed politicians: “With such inefficiency at
the seat of government, what can you expect from citizens?
Besides, they resist our legitimate demands for adequate
education budgets. If only we could get a computer in every
school. . . .”
An atheist blamed the churches: “. . . drugging the peo-
ple’s minds with fables of a better world, and distracting
them from practicalities.”
A churchman blamed radio, television and movies:
. . many distractions of modern life have drawn people
away from the moral teachings of the church.”
A trade unionist blamed management: “. . . too greedy
to pay a living wage. A man can’t take any interest in his job
on this starvation pay.”
A manager blamed unions: “The worker just doesn’t care
nowadays—thinks of nothing but raises, vacations and re-
tirement pensions.”
An individualist said that welfare-statism produces a gen-
eral don’t-care attitude. A social worker told me that moral
laxity in the home and family breakdown produces irrespon-
sibility on the job. A psychologist said that early repression
of sexual impulses causes a subconscious desire to fail, as
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atonement for guilt feelings. A philosopher said, “Men are
human; accidents will happen.”
A multitude of different explanations is as bad as no ex-
planation at all. I began to feel that 1 would never under-
stand incompetence.
Then one evening, in a theatre lobby, during the second
intermission of a dully performed play, I was grumbling
about incompetent actors and directors, and got into conver-
sation with Dr. Laurence J. Peter, a scientist who had de-
voted many years to the study of incompetence.
The intermission was too short for him to do more than
whet my curiosity. After the show I went to his home and
sat till 3:00 A.M. listening to his lucid, startlingly original 16 Introduction
exposition of a theory that at last answered my question,
“Why incompetence?”
Dr. Peter exonerated Adam, agitators and accident, and
arraigned one feature of our society as the perpetrator and
rewarder of incompetence.
Incompetence explained! My mind flamed at the thought.
Perhaps the next step might be incompetence eradicated!
With characteristic modesty, Dr. Peter had so far been
satisfied to discuss his discovery with a few friends and col-
leagues and give an occasional lecture on his research. His
vast collection of incompetenciana, his brilliant galaxy of
incompetence theories and formulae, had never appeared in
print.
“Possibly my Principle could benefit mankind,” said Peter.
“But I’m frantically busy with routine teaching and the as-
sociated paperwork; then there are faculty committee meet-
ings, and my continuing research. Some day I may sort out
the material and arrange it for publication, but for the next
ten or fifteen years I simply won’t have time.”
I stressed the danger of procrastination and at last Dr.
Peter agreed to a collaboration: he would place his extensive
research reports and huge manuscript at my disposal; I
would condense them into a book. The following pages
present Professor Peter’s explanation of his Principle, the
most penetrating social and psychological discovery of the
century.
Dare you read it?
Dare you face, in one blinding revelation, the reason why
schools do not bestow wisdom, why governments cannot
maintain order, why courts do not dispense justice, why
prosperity fails to produce happiness, why utopian plans
never generate utopias?
Introduction 17
Do not decide lightly. The decision to read on is irrevo-
cable. If you read, you can never regain your present state
of blissful ignorance; you will never again unthinkingly ven-
erate your superiors or dominate your subordinates. Never!
The Peter Principle, once heard, cannot be forgotten.
What have you to gain by reading on? By conquering in-
competence in yourself, and by understanding incompetence
in others, you can do your own work more easily, gain pro-
motion and make more money. You can avoid painful ill-
nesses. You can become a leader of men. You can enjoy
your leisure. You can gratify your friends, confound your
enemies, impress your children and enrich and revitalize
your marriage.
This knowledge, in short, will revolutionize your life—
perhaps save it. |
So, if you have courage, read on, mark, memorize and
apply the Peter Principle. CHAPTER I
The Peter Principle
“I begin to smell a rat.”
M. DE CERVANTES
\ Viren I was a boy I was taught that the men upstairs
knew what they were doing. I was told, “Peter, the more
you know, the further you go.” So I stayed in school until
I graduated from college and then went forth into the world
clutching firmly these ideas and my new teaching certificate.
During the first year of teaching I was upset to find that a
number of teachers, school principals, supervisors and
superintendents appeared to be unaware of their profes-
sional responsibilities and incompetent in executing their
duties. For example my principal’s main concerns were that
all window shades be at the same level, that classrooms
should be quiet and that no one step on or near the rose
beds. The superintendent’s main concerns were that no
minority group, no matter how fanatical, should ever be
offended and that all official forms be submitted on time.
The children’s education appeared farthest from the admin-
istrator mind.
At first I thought this was a special weakness of the
school system in which I taught so I applied for certification
19 20 The Peter Principle
in another province. I filled out the special forms, enclosed
the required documents and complied willingly with all the
red tape. Several weeks later, back came my application
and all the documents!
No, there was nothing wrong with my credentials; the
forms were correctly filled out; an official departmental
stamp showed that they had been received in good order.
But an accompanying letter said, “The new regulations re-
quire that such forms cannot be accepted by the Depart-
ment of Education unless they have been registered at the
Post Office to ensure safe delivery. Will you please remail
the forms to the Department, making sure to register them
this time?”
I began to suspect that the local school system did not
have a monopoly on incompetence.
As I looked further afield, I saw that every organization
contained a number of persons who could not do their jobs.
A Universal Phenomenon
Occupational incompetence is everywhere. Have you
noticed it? Probably we all have noticed it.
We see indecisive politicians posing as resolute statesmen
and the “authoritative source” who blames his misinforma-
tion on “situational imponderables.” Limitless are the public
servants who are indolent and insolent; military command-
ers whose behavioral timidity belies their dreadnaught
rhetoric, and governors whose innate servility prevents
their actually governing. In our sophistication, we virtually
shrug aside the immoral cleric, corrupt judge, incoherent
attorney, author who cannot write and English teacher who
cannot spell. At universities we see proclamations authored
by administrators whose own office communications are
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In our sophistication, we virtually shrug aside the immoral cleric. 22 The Peter Principle
hopelessly muddled; and droning lectures from inaudible or
incomprehensible instructors.
Seeing incompetence at all levels of every hierarchy—
political, legal, educational and industrial—I hypothesized
that the cause was some inherent feature of the rules gov-
erning the placement of employees. Thus began my serious
study of the ways in which employees move upward through
a hierarchy, and of what happens to them after promotion.
For my scientific data hundreds of case histories were
collected. Here are three typical examples.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT FILE, CASE No. 17 J. S. Min-
ion * was a maintenance foreman in the public works de-
partment of Excelsior City. He was a favorite of the senior
officials at City Hall. They all praised his unfailing affability.
“I like Minion,” said the superintendent of works. “He
has good judgment and is always pleasant and agreeable.”
This behavior was appropriate for Minion’s position: he
was not supposed to make policy, so he had no need to
disagree with his superiors.
The superintendent of works retired and Minion suc-
ceeded him. Minion continued to agree with everyone. He
passed to his foreman every suggestion that came from
above. The resulting conflicts in policy, and the continual
changing of plans, soon demoralized the department. Com-
plaints poured in from the Mayor and other officials, from
taxpayers and from the maintenance-workers’ union.
Minion still says “Yes” to everyone, and carries messages
briskly back and forth between his superiors and his sub-
ordinates. Nominally a superintendent, he actually does the
* Some names have been changed, in order to protect the guilty.
The Peter Principle 23
work of a messenger. The maintenance department regularly
exceeds its budget, yet fails to fulfill its program of work.
In short, Minion, a competent foreman, became an incom-
petent superintendent. |
SERVICE INDUSTRIES FILE, Casz No. 3 E. Tinker was
exceptionally zealous and intelligent as an apprentice at
G. Reece Auto Repair Inc., and soon rose to journeyman
mechanic. In this job he showed outstanding ability in diag-
nosing obscure faults, and endless patience in correcting
them. He was promoted to foreman of the repair shop.
But here his love of things mechanical and his perfection-
ism become liabilities. He will undertake any job that he
thinks looks interesting, no matter how busy the shop may
be. “We'll work it in somehow,” he says.
He will not let a job go until he is fully satisfied with it.
He meddles constantly. He is seldom to be found at his
desk. He is usually up to his elbows in a dismantled motor
and while the man who should be doing the work stands
watching, other workmen sit around waiting to be assigned
new tasks. As a result the shop is always overcrowded with
work, always in a muddle, and delivery times are often
missed.
Tinker cannot understand that the average customer cares
little about perfection—he wants his car back on time! He
cannot understand that most of his men are less interested
in motors than in their pay checks. So Tinker cannot get on
with his customers or with his subordinates. He was a com-
petent mechanic, but is now an incompetent foreman.
MILITARY FILE, CASE No. 8 Consider the case of the late
renowned General A. Goodwin. His hearty, informal man- 24 The Peter Principle
ner, his racy style of speech, his scorn for petty regulations
and his undoubted personal bravery made him the idol of
his men. He led them to many well-deserved victories.
When Goodwin was promoted to field marshal he had to
deal, not with ordinary soldiers, but with politicians and
allied generalissimos.
He would not conform to the necessary protocol. He could
not turn his tongue to the conventional courtesies and flat-
teries. He quarreled with all the dignitaries and took to lying
for days at a time, drunk and sulking, in his trailer. The
conduct of the war slipped out of his hands into those of his
subordinates. He had been promoted to a position that he
was incompetent to fill.
An Important Clue!
In time I saw that all such cases had a common feature.
The employee had been promoted from a position of com-
petence to a position of incompetence. I saw that, sooner or
later, this could happen to every employee in every hier-
archy.
HYPOTHETICAL CASE FILE, CASE No. 1 Suppose you own
a pill-rolling factory, Perfect Pill Incorporated. Your fore-
man-pill roller dies of a perforated ulcer. You need a re-
placement. You naturally look among your rank-and-file pill
rollers.
Miss Oval, Mrs. Cylinder, Mr. Ellipse and Mr. Cube all
show various degrees of incompetence. They will naturally
be ineligible for promotion. You will choose—other things
being equal—your most competent pill roller, Mr. Sphere,
and promote him to foreman.
Now suppose Mr. Sphere proves competent as foreman.
The Peter Principle 25
Later, when your general foreman, Legree, moves up to
Works Manager, Sphere will be eligible to take his place.
If, on the other hand, Sphere is an incompetent foreman,
he will get no more promotion. He has reached what I call
his “level of incompetence.” He will stay there till the end
of his career.
Some employees, like Ellipse and Cube, reach a level of
incompetence in the lowest grade and are never promoted.
Some, like Sphere (assuming he is not a satisfactory fore-
man), reach it after one promotion.
E. Tinker, the automobile repair-shop foreman, reached
his level of incompetence on the third stage of the hierarchy.
General Goodwin reached his level of incompetence at the
very top of the hierarchy.
So my analysis of hundreds of cases of occupational in-
competence led me on to formulate The Peter Principle:
In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends
to Rise to His Level of Incompetence
A New Science!
Having formulated the Principle, I discovered that I had
inadvertently founded a new science, hierarchiology, the
study of hierarchies.
The term “hierarchy” was originally used to describe the
system of church government by priests graded into ranks.
The contemporary meaning includes any organization
whose members or employees are arranged in order of
rank, grade or class. |
Hierarchiology, although a relatively recent discipline,
appears to have great applicability to the fields of public
and private administration. 26 The Peter Principle
This Means You!
My Principle is the key to an understanding of all hierar-
chal systems, and therefore to an understanding of the whole
structure of civilization. A few eccentrics try to avoid getting
involved with hierarchies, but everyone in business, industry,
trade-unionism, politics, government, the armed forces, re-
ligion and education is so involved. All of them are con-
trolled by the Peter Principle.
Many of them, to be sure, may win a promotion or two,
moving from one level of competence to a higher level of
competence. But competence in that new position qualifies
them for still another promotion. For each individual, for
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The Peter Principle 27
you, for me, the final promotion is from a level of compe-
tence to a level of incompetence.*
So, given enough time—and assuming the existence of
enough ranks in the hierarchy——each employee rises to, and
remains at, his level of incompetence. Peter’s Corollary
states:
In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee
who is incompetent to carry out its duties.
Who Turns the Wheels?
You will rarely find, of course, a system in which every
employee has reached his level of incompetence. In most
instances, something is being done to further the ostensible
purposes for which the hierarchy exists.
Work is accomplished.by those employees who have not
yet reached their level of incompetence.
* The phenomena of “percussive sublimation” (commonly referred to
as “being kicked upstairs”) and of “the lateral arabesque” are not, as
the casual observer might think, exceptions to the Principle. They are
only pseudo-promotions, and will be dealt with in Chapter 3. CHAPTER II
The Principle tn
ACtiION
“To tell tales out of schoole”
J. HEYwoop
A STUDY of a typical hierarchy, the Excelsior City school
system, will show how the Peter Principle works within the
teaching profession. Study this example and understand
how hierarchiology operates within every establishment.
Let us begin with the rank-and-file classroom teachers.
I group them, for this analysis, into three classes: competent,
moderately competent and incompetent.
Distribution theory predicts, and experience confirms,
that teachers will be distributed unevenly in these classes:
the majority in the moderately competent class, minorities
in the competent and incompetent classes. This graph illus-
trates the distribution:
Median
Incompetent Moderately competent Competent
28
The Principle in Action 29
The Case of the Conformist
An incompetent teacher is ineligible for promotion. Doro-
thea D. Ditto, for example, had been an extremely conform-
ing student in college. Her assignments were either plagiar-
isms from textbooks and journals, or transcriptions of the
professors’ lectures. She always did exactly as she was told,
no more, no less. She was considered to be a competent stu-
dent. She graduated with honors from the Excelsior Teach-
ers’ College.
When she became a teacher, she taught exactly as she
herself had been taught. She followed precisely the textbook,
the curriculum guide and the bell schedule.
Her work goes fairly well, except when no rule or prece-
dent is available. For example, when a water pipe burst and
flooded the classroom floor, Miss Ditto kept on teaching
until the principal rushed in and rescued the class.
“Miss Ditto!” he cried. “In the Name of the Superintend-
ent! There are three inches of water on this floor. Why is
your class still here?”
She replied, “I didn’t hear the emergency bell signal. 1 pay
attention to those things. You know I do. I’m certain you
didn’t sound the bell.” Flummoxed before the power of her
awesome non sequitur, the principal invoked a provision of
the school code giving him emergency powers in an extraor-
dinary circumstance and led her sopping class from the
building.
So, although she never breaks a rule or disobeys an
order, she is often in trouble, and will never gain promotion.
Competent as a student, she has reached her level of incom-
petence as a classroom teacher, and will therefore remain in
that position throughout her teaching career. 30 The Peter Principle
The Eligible Majority
Most beginning teachers are moderately competent or
competent—see the area from B to D on the graph—and
they will all be eligible for promotion. Here is one such case.
A Latent Weakness
Mr. N. Beeker had been a competent student, and became
a popular science teacher. His lessons and lab periods were
inspiring. His students were co-operative and kept the lab-
oratory in order. Mr. Beeker was not good at paper work,
but this weakness was offset, in the judgment of his superi-
ors, by his success as a teacher.
Beeker was promoted to head of the science department
where he now had to order all science supplies and keep ex-
tensive records. His incompetence is evident! For three years
running he has ordered new Bunsen burners, but no tubing
for connecting them. As the old tubing deteriorates, fewer
and fewer burners are operable, although new ones accumu-
late on the shelves.
Beeker is not being considered for further promotion. His
ultimate position is one for which he is incompetent.
Higher up the Hierarchy
B. Lunt had been a competent student, teacher and de-
partment head, and was promoted to assistant principal. In
this post he got on well with teachers, students and parents,
and was intellectually competent. He gained a further pro-
motion to the rank of principal.
Till now, he had never dealt directly with school-board
members, or with the district superintendent of education.
It soon appeared that he lacked the required finesse to work
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He got on well with teachers, students and parents. 32 The Peter Principle
with these high officials. He kept the superintendent waiting
while he settled a dispute between two children. Taking a
class for a teacher who was ill, he missed a curriculum
revision committee meeting called by the assistant super-
intendent.
He worked so hard at running his school that he had no
energy for running community organizations. He declined
offers to become program chairman of the Parent-Teacher
Association, president of the Community Betterment
League and consultant to the Committee for Decency in
Literature.
His school lost community support and he fell out of
favor with the superintendent. Lunt came to be regarded,
by the public and by his superiors, as an incompetent princi-
pal. When the assistant superintendent’s post became vacant,
the school board declined to give it to Lunt. He remains,
and will remain till he retires, unhappy and incompetent as
a principal.
THE Autocrat R. Driver, having proved his competence
as student, teacher, department head, assistant principal and
principal, was promoted to assistant superintendent. Previ-
ously he had only to interpret the school board’s policy and
have it efficiently carried out in his school. Now, as assistant
superintendent, he must participate in the policy discussions
of the board, using democratic procedures.
But Driver dislikes democratic procedures. He insists on
his status as an expert. He lectures the board members much
as he used to lecture his students when he was a classroom
teacher. He tries to dominate the board as he dominated his
staff when he was a principal.
The Principle in Action 33
The board now considers Driver an incompetent assistant
superintendent. He will receive no further promotion.
SoOoN PARTED. G. Spender was a competent student, Eng-
lish teacher, department head, assistant principal and prin-
cipal. He then worked competently for six years as an assist-
ant superintendent—patriotic, diplomatic, suave and well
liked. He was promoted to superintendent. Here he was
obliged to enter the field of school finance, in which he soon
found himself at a loss.
From the start of his teaching career, Spender had never
bothered his head about money. His wife handled his pay
check, paid all household accounts and gave him pocket
money each week.
Now Spender’s incompetence in the area of finance is
revealed. He purchased a large number of teaching machines
from a fly-by-night company which went bankrupt without
producing any programs to fit the machines. He had every
classroom in the city equipped with television, although the
only programs available in the area were for secondary
schools. Spender has found his level of incompetence.
Another Promotion Mechanism
The foregoing examples are typical of what are called
“line promotions.” There is another mode of upward move-
ment: the “staff promotion.” The case of Miss T. Totland
is typical.
Miss Totland, who had been a competent student and an
outstanding primary teacher, was promoted to primary su-
pervisor. She now has to teach, not children, but teachers.
Yet she still uses the techniques which worked so well with
small children. gave
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