Parkinson's Law: Or The Pursuit Of Progress (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

Parkinson, C Northcote

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141186852 ISBN 13: 9780141186856

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2002

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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).

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0141186852
• ISBN 13: 9780141186856
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128
• Illustrator: Lancaster Osbert