[GreenJelloShot]

I have never seen a "bad" manager exist under a "good" manager/director. Every single "bad" manager was able to survive and thrive because the environment was set up to encourage and reward the "bad" behavior.

If you are hiring and managing bad people, then the problem is not with them. It is with you. If you are unable to identify bad people under you, then you are failing at your most basic responsibility.

[madrox]

Taking your argument to its conclusion, if there's a bad manager, then the director is bad, then the VP is bad, all the way up to the CEO. A single bad employee means the CEO is bad. I think we can both agree that stretches the definition of bad so far as to be meaningless.

Personally, I've seen bad managers under good directors. It's complicated. Anyone can make a bad hiring decision. My point is that even if you are able to identity bad people under you, that identification process takes time. The higher you go in a hierarchy, the longer the time horizon you tend to be evaluated on. To say it should be obvious on a very short time horizon is disingenuous and only covers the most egregious cases.