From 65438 to 0958, the British historian and political scientist C Notteparkin-Sen published the book Parkinson's Law. After years of investigation and study, he found that the time required for a person to do one thing is so different: a person can finish reading a newspaper in 10 minutes, or read it for half a day; A busy person can send a stack of postcards in 20 minutes, but an idle old lady can spend a whole day looking for postcards, glasses, addresses and greetings in order to send a postcard to a distant niece, and spend an hour and a quarter ... especially at work, the work will automatically expand and occupy all available time. If there is enough time, this person will slow down the pace of work.
In addition, Parkinson also explains the causes and consequences of the expansion of institutional personnel in the book. An incompetent official may have three outlets. The first is to apply for resignation and give the position to someone who can do it. The second is to let a capable person help him with his work; The third is to appoint two people lower than themselves as assistants. The first way is absolutely impossible, because many rights will be lost; You can't go the second way, because that capable person will become your opponent; It seems that only the third way is the most suitable. So, two mediocre assistants share his work, and he gives orders from above. They will not pose a threat to their rights. Since both assistants are incompetent, find yourself two incompetent assistants from top to bottom.
By analogy, a leadership system is formed, which is bloated, overstaffed, wrangling with each other and inefficient.
For example, two months after a water conservancy bureau implemented bank payment, employees found that there were 34 more "mouths". There are 34 non-water conservancy employees, but there are wage accounts for employees of the Water Conservancy Bureau. After investigation, it is found that the 34 extra "mouths" are relatives of cadres of the Water Resources Bureau, of which 2 1 are children and relatives of cadres at or above the deputy division level of the Water Resources Bureau. Among them are elderly people with grandchildren, illiterate peasant women and even nine college students who are studying. Another example is Tongxin County in Xihaigu area of Ningxia, which was once famous for its "bitter armor", but it is there that this Parkinson's phenomenon is very common. In Tongxin county, some cadres violate the law and discipline, capable talents are not reused, and people with average ability are overstaffed into administrative institutions, which leads to the abnormal expansion of the number of people who eat "imperial grain" in this national poverty-stricken county. Redundant employees have eaten up the budget and subsidies, and even misappropriated special funds ... This kind of "poverty and corruption" has caused a series of strange things-in this poor county with a population of only 330,000, the number of people who eat "imperial grain" is as high as 1. 1.000, and there are more than 2,800 overstaffed personnel in the county. Incredibly, in this overstaffed army, there are a large number of "temporary cadres", "rotation cadres" and "doll cadres" aged 65 and 438+00, as well as "preschool children cadres" aged four or five. There are only three tombstones in the county martyrs cemetery, but it supports 20 managers. No wonder some people ridiculed that "20 living people guard 3 dead people." The inefficiency caused by the overuse of institutions and personnel has almost become a common problem in some places, and the "diners" caused by a few "lazy monks" have become a "chronic disease" in these departments.
It is not difficult for us to see that Parkinson's law is not the same old tune and lacks new ideas. This law describes the employment status of some administrative organs. Some unscrupulous leaders, who abuse power for personal gain, make friends with relatives who lack basic professional qualities, or cheat on their superiors, cheat on their subordinates, or abuse power for personal gain, and go to their own departments. As a result, the "seven aunts and eight aunts" are in charge of the "handsome seal" one by one, and their relatives occupy important positions one by one, while capable cadres are lightly used, not even suppressed because of some "ambitions" or some "arrogance" of real skills. As a result, they might as well watch and make trouble. A chief executive with inflated selfish desires opened the door for a group of imbeciles, but turned away a group of promising people, so mediocrity defeated talents and "cow dung" got "flowers".
Another example can help us understand the conditions under which Parkinson's law can work. It is said that there is a private entrepreneur whose land and property rights belong to this entrepreneur. With the continuous expansion of enterprise scale, this company has gained some fame, and now it feels more and more inadequate in management.
Obviously, someone needs to help him at this time. As a result, business owners posted job advertisements in various media, and there was an endless stream of applicants. Among them, there are such talents: they have finished MBA courses in famous American universities, have ten years of management experience (no matter what reason he came to such a company, assuming he is willing to work here), and their performance is good, so they are obviously a very effective candidate. Will this private entrepreneur hire him? The boss may soon think: the company's land is mine and the property rights are mine, which shows that this person is a "proletarian" when he comes to me. He works purely for me. If I do a good job and pay him a high salary, I can keep him. If I don't do well, I can fire him. No matter how good and hard he is, he can't take my place. The boss will always be me. After some calculations, I left this talented person with high IQ, high quality and high ability. The boss can be said to be obedient and completely unaffected by Parkinson's law. This is the practice of a person with absolute power. Then, the enterprise continued to develop, and finally made a breakthrough in management, expanded its business scope, and new problems emerged one after another. Because what I learned is out of date, I didn't find time to "recharge", so I retired for only five years. Now I feel overwhelmed and need the help of my assistant. So he advertised in various media, and all kinds of talents flocked to him. Two of them are valued by the boss. One is a graduate student majoring in public administration in a famous university, who has written many articles with a deep theoretical foundation but little practical experience. The other has the skill and courage of a doer, advanced management concepts and operational experience.
The boss couldn't make up his mind and asked him to choose. At this time, he made up his mind. In the end, he chose a graduate student who just left school.
It can be seen that Parkinson's law can only play a role in organizations with management functions and constant pursuit of perfection, in mediocre management roles that do not match their own abilities, and among people without power monopoly. Then bounce back Pipa, an organization without management functions, such as online virtual academic organizations and interest groups, and there is no terrible stubborn disease explained by Parkinson's law; An enterprising and conservative organization, who does not need to introduce new people, naturally has no trouble with Parkinson's law; A person with absolute power, he is not afraid of others seizing power, nor will he find a mediocre person as an assistant; A person who can assume his management role does not need an assistant, and there is no Parkinson's law.
Through the analysis of the above conditions, we can clearly see that the sense of power crisis is the root of Parkinson's phenomenon. Engels once said: "Since the emergence of class society, people's bad lust, greed and power desire have become the levers of historical development." As a complex of sociality and animality, it is normal for people to act for the benefit. Assuming that his vested interests are threatened, his instinct will tell him that he must not lose this vested interest, which is the internal cause of Parkinson's law. If there is a power crisis, a vested power person will not give up his power easily, nor will he easily set up an opponent for himself. Under the supervision of conscience, it is natural and should be condemned to choose two people who are not as good as themselves as assistants.