The Dilbert Principle owes its formulation to the popular Dilbert cartoons by Scott Adams and it came into prominence in the 1990s. Scott Adams also wrote a satirical 1996 book of the same name
The Dilbert principle says that companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management (generally middle management), in order to limit the amount of damage they're capable of doing.
The famous Dilbert principle quote goes like this: “leadership is nature's way of removing morons from the productive flow.”
Peter Principle versus Dilbert principle
The Peter Principle addresses the practice of hierarchical organizations (such as corporations and government agencies) to use promotions as a way to obtain greater advantage from employees who demonstrate competence in their current position. It goes on to state that, due to this practice, a competent employee will eventually be promoted to, and remain at, a position at which he or she is incompetent.
The Dilbert Principle, on the other hand, claims that incompetent employees are intentionally promoted to prevent them from doing harm (such as reducing product quality, offending customers, offending employees, etc.) The Dilbert Principle draws upon the idea that the upper echelons of an organization can have little relevance to its actual production, and that the majority of real, productive work in a company is often done by people lower in the power ladder. It is possible for both Principles to be simultaneously active in a single organization.
[From the Great Books Series. Also see The Success Manual - Encyclopedia of Advice, which contains summaries of 100+ Most useful books.]
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