Under New Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual

Burkus (management, Oral Roberts Univ.) confirms that open-floor plans, annual performance reviews, and internal email might be doing more harm than good. This exploration of disruptive practices in personnel management considers 13 different approaches companies can take to change the way they interact with employees. Using examples from both established Fortune 500 companies and start-ups to show how innovative practices are improving satisfaction in the workplace, Burkus also explains why it makes sense from a management perspective that companies such as Zappos, Amazon, and Riot Games offer new employees monetary incentive to quit within the first month. He further outlines the rationales behind strategies such as making salaries public, offering unlimited vacation and parental leave, providing sabbaticals, rethinking organizational charts, and banning noncompete clauses. While the book ignores any potential downside to these methods, it provides a compelling argument on why employees—not customers or stockholders—should come first.