Do open-floor plans really work – or do they make employees miserable? Are there companies which really put their employees’ welfare first, and their clients second? Are annual performance reviews really necessary?
Dr. David Burkus is a highly regarded and increasingly influential business school professor who challenges many of the long-established principles of business management. Drawing on decades of research, Burkus has found that not only are many of our fundamental management practices wrong and misguided, but they can be downright counter-productive.
And these days, the best companies are already breaking the old rules. At Volkswagen, email is now restricted to certain hours, so that employees can work without distraction. Netflix no longer has a standard vacation policy of 2-3 weeks, but instructs employees to take off as much time as they feel they need. At Morningstar Farms, there are no managers at all, the employees govern themselves. And at Zappos, new employees are given the option to quit and get paid for it.
The revolutionary insights Burkus reveals in Under New Management are convincing companies to leave behind decades-old management practices and to implement new ways to enhance productivity and morale.
Praise for Under New Management
“Is your company ready for a radical departure from 20th-century management standards and a bold move into a new approach? In UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT, David Burkus has collected the stories of dozens of companies that are making this journey. They’re standing the old rules on their heads and running their businesses with refreshing amounts of transparency and autonomy. Even better, Burkus shows how you can do it, too.”
—Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Drive and To Sell is Human
“I can’t stop raving about Under New Management to friends and colleagues. If you are going to read one book on being a better manager in the next year, start here. David Burkus has assembled the most practical research and provocative ideas into an incredibly quick read.”
—Tom Rath, bestselling author of Strengths Finder 2.0
“In Under New Management, Burkus hauls 20th-century management ideas to the scrap heap while revealing counterintuitive practices that will drive organizational performance in the back half of the 21st century. And like any good manager, he under-promises, and over-delivers. Under New Management is a lively, provocative, must read.”
—Whitney Johnson, author of Disrupt Yourself
“David Burkus challenges established management principles and reveals the counterintuitive practices that really drive organizational performance. Under New Management makes a provocative case that you should put customers second, close open offices, and ditch performance appraisals.”
—Adam Grant, Wharton professor and bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals
“Under New Management dares us to rethink some of our most closely held assumptions about management – should we fire managers? Pay people to quit? Celebrate departures? Burkus masterfully questions so-called ‘best practices’ and illustrates how today’s leading companies are unleashing human talent. If you want to stay ahead in the new game of work, read this book!”
—Liz Wiseman, bestselling author of Multipliers and Rookie Smarts
On Seinfeld, perpetual screw-up George Constanza eventually realized that since every impulse he had turned out to be wrong, if he simply did the opposite he would succeed. In David Burkus’ brilliant follow-up to the Myths of Creativity, he proves (with data!) just how well that same bit of logic applies to modern management. Get rid of your email, open offices, and performance reviews. Let people take vacation whenever they want, and pay them to quit. If what you’re doing isn’t working, Burkus will show you what does.
—Heidi Grant Halvorson, bestselling author of No One Understands You and What To Do About It