What is meant by the term open-book management?

Motivational approach used by organisations Financial statements are shared with employees

Open-book management (OBM) is a management phrase coined by John Case of Inc. magazine, who began using the term in1993 (Aggarwal & Simkins,2001). However, the concept's most visible success was by Jack Stack and his team at SRC Holdings (Davis,1997; Kidwell & Scherer,2001).

The basis of open-book management is that the information received by employees should not only help them do their jobs effectively, but help them understand how the company is doing as a whole. According to Case, "a company performs best when its people see themselves as partners in the business rather than as hired hands". The technique is to give employees all relevant financial information about the company so they can make better decisions as workers. This information includes, but is not limited to, revenue, profit, cost of goods, cash flow and expenses.

Ref.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-book_management

I believe we (at IBM) had been a very good example of this "open book management" system where the company put the whole employee instructions manual  on-line allowing employees and managers to access it and see what it says for this or that situation.

I even remember the managers telling the employees at that time ... "Do not ask me ,,, go to the system and see what it says"