The B people myth

You know the expression: "A people hire A people, B people hire C people." It's a stupid expression that hardly anyone really understands. Nonetheless, it's been enshrined as a management principle in places like Google and GE.

In a recent post called Crappy Systems versus Crappy People, Bob Sutton explains that there's no evidence to support "B people hire C people" part:

There is evidence that people hire others like themselves, so a reasonable inference is that crappy people will hire equally crappy people -- but there is no direct evidence [that "bad managers hire very, very bad employees"]. I spent weeks and weeks trying to find even a hint that a single article in a peer reviewed journal supported the belief that bad performers systematically hire even worse performers. It is one of those management myths that don’t appear to have any empirical basis.

(For another take on this topic see Malcolm Gladwell's The Talent Myth.)

Sutton also makes an important point about the essential role that systems play in performance:

I agree – and can show you evidence – that there are huge differences in individual skill and ability in every occupation. BUT we’ve also got a lot of evidence that ordinary people can perform at top levels in a well-designed system, and even a superstar is doomed to fail in a bad system.

Which goes to show you: systems matters at least as much as the people do. Sutton's comparison of NASA (smart people, bad system, major errors) and the US civil aviation system (average people, good system, incredibly safe) is also pretty compelling.