I was listening to a podcast episode of "Says You" last night, and they mentioned the "Dilbert Principle", which says something like:


Companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management, in order to limit the amount of damage that they're capable of doing.


Which is amusing and cynical. I've got an explanation that I think is simpler:


Companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management, because it is the incompetent who choose who to promote.