Main content

Why your boss is incompetent

An explainer on why the wrong people get promoted

Why is it that the boss never seems to know what they鈥檙e doing? The famous 鈥淒ilbert principle鈥 asserts that companies promote incompetent employees into middle management to get them out of the way. But Professor David Dunning, co-creator of the competing 鈥淒unning鈥揔ruger effect鈥, says there鈥檚 more to it than that, specifically that the more incompetent a person is, the more confident they can be. Meanwhile, Kelly Shue, Professor of Finance at Yale, says an even simpler idea, the 鈥淧eter Principle鈥 helps to explain why people get promoted beyond their level of competence. And entrepreneur Heather McGregor explains why the incompetence of a former boss led her to buy her own company

Presented by Ed Butler, This is a repeat of a programme first broadcast in June 2020.

(Picture: A woman at her desk. Getty Images)

Available now

18 minutes

Last on

Fri 19 Mar 2021 08:32GMT

Broadcast

  • Fri 19 Mar 2021 08:32GMT

Business Daily Podcast

Download every programme.

Podcast