Negative selection - politics dictatorship and corporate dictatorship

The text below is found in Wikipedia, as a political matter, but if you read it very carefully, you will see that fits perfectly in the way many corporate and / or departmental hierarchies are composed, aimed at self-protection of those in top of certain hierarchies, that is, "bosses".

If you are in the Human Resources area, and notice a lot of employee turnover in a given department of the company, and the boss (es) of this department, and a few subordinates, are always the same, activate the warning sign, because the problem of "negative selection" may be occurring in your company. Make an bottom-up assessment and listening to subordinates, can be a great solution.

Negative selection is a political process that occurs especially in rigid hierarchies, most notably dictatorships, but also to lesser degrees in such settings as corporations or electoral politics.

The person on the top of the hierarchy, wishing to remain in power forever, chooses his associates with the prime criterion of incompetence - they must not be competent enough to remove him from power. Since subordinates often mimic their leader, these associates do the same with those below them in the hierarchy, and the hierarchy is progressively filled with more and more incompetent people.

If the dictator sees that he is threatened nonetheless, he will remove those that threaten him from their positions - "purge" the hierarchy. Emptied positions in the hierarchy are normally filled with people from below those who were less competent than their previous masters. So, over the course of time, the hierarchy becomes less and less effective. Once the dictator dies - or is removed by some external influence - what remains is a grossly ineffective hierarchy.

Source of original text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_selection_(politics)

Published on 18/09/2009.