This book provides the first ever comprehensive economic evaluation of the long-standing German system of works councils and worker directors on company boards. This system of codetermination, or "Mitbestimmung, " is unique in the degree of information provision, consultation, and participation ceded employees. Addison analyzes the effects of works councils on establishment productivity, profitability, investment in physical and intangible capital, employment, training, wages and organizational flexibility, as well as the influence of worker directors on some of the same indicators plus, critically, shareholder value. Today, works councils are in decline while worker directors have scarcely been embraced either from within or without. This book examines these challenges and addresses the likely evolution of codetermination.

This is the first full collection of all 122 of Russell Ackoff's f/laws - previously only available in two separate books from Triarchy Press (Management f-Laws and Systems Thinking for Curious Managers.) Each f/law in this full collection is accompanied by Ackoff's own witty and acerbic explanatory text and (in the printed edition) by his original drawings and cartoons. The collection reverts to Ackoff's original typescript without any commentary or other introduction. As Ackoff himself says: "Over time I have become aware of some very important truths about the practice of management. These truths, which I call the 'F/laws of Management, ' contradict assumptions that are commonly held by managers. These simple management truths are much more important than the fundamental, but complex, truths revealed by scientists, economists, politicians, or philosophers. The truths these wise thinkers reveal are at most frosting on the cake. The truths presented here are the cake." This definitive collection distils Ackoff's wisdom and a lifetime of experience about management, leadership, innovation, teamwork and organizations. It should be required reading for anyone who works in an organization.

A full collection of more than 80 of Russell Ackoff's management f-laws: the uncomfortable truths about how organizations really work, what's wrong with the way we design and manage businesses, what makes managers tick... and how we can make things work better. Russell Ackoff is one of the world's top business brains. Herbert Addison has worked for years in business book publishing. Sally Bibb is a pioneer of organizational change. Who better to zero in on organizations, take them apart and then suggest ways of putting them back together - but better?

The 13 f-LAWS featured in this little red book are an introduction to Ackoff's thinking about management. Russell Ackoff, who died in 2009, was one of the world's leading business thinkers and one of the founding fathers of Systems Thinking. His Management f-Laws (a term coined by Ackoff) expose the conventions and laws of management the hierarchies and power struggles, the ineptitudes and time-wasting, the prejudices and careless thinking as flaws of management: all of which hinder successful strategies for organizational change and development.