The Peter Pyramid, Or, Will We Ever Get the Point?

by Laurence J. Peter

Book Overview

"The Quotations and the ideas in thsi truly marvelous book are as fascinating as the variety of people quoted: generals, gansters, statesmen, philosophers, holy men, and comedians. Peter's Quotations... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688053807
• ISBN13: 9780688053802
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

government 'logic' vs. the real world

Do we get the point is a comparison with how government (in any form) 'works', as opposed to real business in the private sector. It delves into the illogical mindset of managers and administrators who have never really held any type of production oriented work in the private sector, for which they ascended the ladder of success, but instead, went to work as administrators of tax money for which accountability, frugal spending, and competent working planning is all out the window. Here you have bureaucrats who realize very soon that their jobs are secure, and that it takes almost an act of congress to weed out anyone not able to contribute anything positive to the organization. Briefly, take someone in construction in the private sector. Chances are the admistrators on the contracting firm was once a working stiff on the bottom, that, due to experience, practical knowledge, and additional training, rose through the ranks and became a foreman, supervisor, manager, and even the head of a contracting firm. If something were to break or flounder, chances are that the guy at the top could step in and fix the problem, or even fill in for one or more of the trades involved to keep the ship sailing; complete interaction and service throughout the company. On the other hand, in government, you have a series of employees at the bottom more or less trained in real world jobs and careers, that can handle most anything thrown at them; and another group at the top who has no clue what to do in a crisis, much less fill in with cross trained employees, and their only way out is to either throw money at the problem, or hire an outside consultant to tell them what to do, because they simply don't have enough experience or practicality to get them out of a bad situation. Those people have a paper that says they're smart, and not any practical knowledge and experience to actually get things moving. In essence, the point of the book is to show that very few competent ants on the bottom rung carries the whole top heavy upside down pyramid of managers and administrators that really don't don't add anything other than weight and gross expensiture to the 'company'. A must read for anybody in business and government