Product Description

Parkinson's Law states that 'work expands to fill the time available'. While strenuously denied by management consultants, bureaucrats and efficiency experts, the law is borne out by disinterested observation of any organization. The book goes far beyond its famous theorem, though. The author goes on to explain how to meet the most important people at a social gathering and why, as a matter of mathematical certainty, the time spent debating an issue is inversely proportional to its objective importance. Justly famous for more than forty years, Parkinson's Law is at once a bracingly cynical primer on the reality of human organization, and an innoculation against the wilful optimism to which we as a species are prone.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #575813 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

About the Author
C. N. Parkinson had a varied career as a writer. He is best known as the author of Parkinson's Law, but among other books he also wrote a biography of Horatio Hornblower, a series of naval novels and several history books (including Britannia Rules and The Rise of Big Business).

Customer Reviews

Funny but also instructive look at Bureaucracy.
Brilliantly written, very funny and at the same time very instructive about the ways of bureaucratic institutions. Although this humorous classic was originally a series of articles for "The Economist" and other magazines, it actually reads like a book rather than a selection of essays. There are chapters which explain: The famous Parkinson's Law i.e. How Government Departments expand irrespective of the amount of work (if any) they do. How Cabinets with more than 21 Ministers become ineffective, and that the optimum may be 8 - as this is the single number not in use. How Committees work - i.e. the more expensive the item, the less time will be spent discussing it. How clever Politicians can manipulate the votes of their colleagues who are idle, weak willed, hung over, asleep.... Continuing in the same vein, there are chapters on Personnel Selection, Diplomatic Parties, Success in Asia, Moribund Institutions and Retirement Age. What I most like about this book is the way it tells unpalatable truths about the way large Institutions work in a highly amusing and interesting way. Although Professor Parkinson wrote this some time ago, it reads as if it was only yesterday, nothing seems to have changed!