Parkinson's law Parkinson's law Parkinson's law is the adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". It is sometimes applied to the growth of bureaucracy in an organization. This law is likely derived from ideal gas law, whereby a gas expands to fit the volume allotted. Articulated by Cyril Northcote Parkinson as part of the first sentence of an essay published in "The Economist" in 1955 and since republished online, it was reprinted with other essays in the book "Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress" (London, John Murray, 1958). He derived the dictum from his extensive
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason actions, and the principle appears as the law of motivation, which states that a definite course of action inevitably ensues on a given character and motive. On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason () is an elaboration on the classical Principle of Sufficient Reason, written by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer as his doctoral dissertation in 1813. The principle of sufficient reason is a powerful and controversial philosophical principle stipulating that everything must have a reason or cause. Schopenhauer revised and re-published it in 1847. The work articulated