
The why people become incompetent at work - zenit-mf-1
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200612-the-reasons-why-people-become-incompetent-at-work
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zenit-mf-1
I am really curious to learn from HN community their thought about the
following statement "“There's been this belief that if you do an MBA or other
forms of management training, then that means you're [automatically] a good
manager, but all of our evidence shows that that's absolutely not the case,”
says Goodall. In healthcare, for instance, “a lot of people think we should
let the doctors do the medicine and let the managers run the hospitals, but
the research shows that actually that's wrong. You need doctors to lead other
doctors, because they understand what they need in terms of being an
employee.”

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andrekandre
> "There's been this belief that if you do an MBA or other forms of management
> training, then that means you're [automatically] a good manager, but all of
> our evidence shows that that's absolutely not the case,"

as an mba holder myself, i can only say what i know, but i went in there with
the explicit knowledge that im going to be learning the tools of business and
management (statistics, accouting/book keeping, finance, marketing, strategy,
management control etc) and that to be a real manager you have to be
experienced actually managing things (and learn what works and fails, how
people are really motivated etc)

i guess if some people go into mba programs expecting to be managers or able
to manage people right from the start, they are very likely to be in for a
rude awakening

maybe i live in a bubble, but do people actually expect that just getting an
mba = compitent manager??

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thebear
One would certainly not want to argue with the statement that many people are
incompetent, or at least not very good, at what they're paid to do. On the
other hand, much of that alleged stupid and incompetent behavior turns out to
be not stupid or incompetent at all if one spends a little time and effort on
reflecting upon it. The opening example of the article, the Department of
Education requiring applications to be sent by registered mail, is a perfect
example. Why won't they accept an application unless it's sent by registered
mail? If there is ever any kind of challenge, possibly resulting in
litigation, over the way they handled an application, they have to have a
complete paper trail of the process. An important part of that paper trail are
the details of when and by whom the application was received. It would be a
sign of incompetence on their part to accept an application that was not sent
by registered mail.

I come across examples like this all the time. I find it amusing how often
alleged stupidity and incompetence reveals more about the accuser than about
the accused.

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austinjp
Title has become mangled, should be "The reasons why people become incompetent
at work".

TLDR, the Peter principle: "Every employee tends to rise to his or her level
of incompetence – Laurence J Peter".

A quote I didn't know, he apparently also said that competence is in the eye
of the beholder.

