The book, first published in 1983, examined whether the Yugoslavs’ extensive implementation of their principle of self-management by small work units was costly in terms of economic efficiency. Were they atomizing their firms into inefficiently small fragments? Was the system of worker self-management appropriate only for small firms? Can a modern industrial enterprise of efficient scale, indeed very large scale, by run that way? In order to answer these questions, the author applies to large firms in former Yugoslavia the transactions cost analysis developed by the economist Oliver Williamson.
