Parkinson’s law is a humorous criticism of the administration of business or government. This “law” is based on the idea that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” The law states that the number of administrators increases, whether or not their official responsibilities increase. Such growth supposedly occurs because these officials create assistants. These assistants, in turn, create new work.
C. Northcote Parkinson, a British historian, developed the law in 1957 in his book Parkinson’s Law and Other Studies in Administration. He applied his law to government administration. But today, people use it to explain almost any situation in which the staff increases faster than the work to be done.
Parkinson supported his law with statistics. For example, he found that the number of administrative officials in the British navy rose 78 percent from 1914 to 1928. But in that period, Britain reduced its fleet about 68 percent.
