Peter Drucker focused on management throughout his life for a reason. The fact that modern society in the industrial era was increasingly composed of a web of non-governmental and non-military organizations – organizations conceived, established, and run by ordinary citizens for their own interests – was radically rewriting the roles and functions of those organizations, and bringing into existence a whole new breed of professional: the manager.
Previously, the role of most people at intermediate levels of an organization (government or military) was to transmit instructions down and results up – they were mere extensions of the great leader at the top. In fact, this traditional model of the organization is still used far too frequently – and uncritically – today, especially by those who promote the idea of the extraordinary individual leader.
But Drucker understood that a sea-change had long been underway, and he undertook to study it. He found that the central thing about modern organizations was not their leadership as traditionally (and, today, poorly) understood, but their management. He called this their most expensive resource, and the one that could be depleted most rapidly as a result of “misrule.” Accordingly, he wanted to understand how it worked, what it did, how to develop it, and, importantly, how to build organizations that better expressed this basic resource.
In Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, Drucker discussed management generally, and then managers in two ways: First, he spent a considerable amount of time attempting to explain what it is that managers, generally, do, and how organizations should be designed to help them do it. In this particular series, we will be limiting ourselves to the former (we will pick up the latter in the future).
Next, he addressed “top management,” and many of the issues facing those at the head of organizations with respect to size, structure, and other modern challenges, such as globalization and the spread of the “knowledge worker.” Interestingly, he also considered the importance of strong corporate governance to the effectiveness of management.
We will be covering, these topics in the next few days, concluding, on Friday, with a review of this important work. Tomorrow, we will talk about the general tasks and practices of managers, generally. Thank you again for your interest in this discussion; we look forward to your continuing visits.
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Please be sure see all the posts in this series!
- Marketing Management
- Defining Management
- Understanding what we do
- Understanding who we are
- Faith or deeds?
- Doing “certain – and fairly simple – things”
- The fundamental requirements
- The basic resource of the business enterprise
- Making tasks meaningful
- Making it matter
- Setting the rules
- Book Review: Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices
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If you have enjoyed this post, please do join us by using the subscription links just below or at the top right of this page. And thanks – we look forward to your being aboard!
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4 Comments
Hi Jim,
Thanks for all the sharing! I came across your blog by way of Eric Brown’s blog. One of the great things about the blogosphere is the chance of coming across great information and resources like yours. I learned a lot just by browsing!
Your’s the first one I’ve come across that pays a lot of attention to Drucker’s teachings and insight as opposed to general lip service to his thoughts. My mentor recommended Drucker to me and the first two management books I ever read were: The Effective Executive and Practice of Management. Glad to know I’ve read a couple of others on your reading list too, like Townsend’s Up the Organization, a wonderful little book on how to be a down-to-earth practical manager.
Many thanks,
-Lui
Hello Liu,
Thanks so much for your visit and your kind words. I certainly agree that Eric’s blog is a very valuable resource, and I’m gratified that you found a link there to this site.
Your mentor is very wise, and your follow-through is, as well. I would strongly recommend that you read the compilation of Mary Parker Follett’s work, edited by Pauline Graham, also listed in the management readings page. Between her and Drucker, you will pick up a tremendous amount of great value – both in terms of ideas and of ways of thinking about management.
Allow me to mention that I have visited your really excellent site. You have a fascinating background and I think it’s a great opportunity for all of us that you have chosen to share your unique experience and thinking with us. I hope everyone will link through from your comment for a visit – and hopefully to subscribe, as well.
Thanks again for stopping by, you kind words, and your own work and writing!
Hi Jim,
Many thanks for the encouragement and helpful advice. I will check out those resources and read up on them. Your writings here are full of incredibly useful tips for the “practitioner manager” which I am. And the impact of having Ben’s dialogue in the previous thread also was significant and which I’m still digesting.
In my organization’s PMO, we have a “pet” phrase – that is we are a “sharing and caring organization”. As “professional” project managers, we understand the value of sharing our “war stories”, the lessons learned, so that others may avoid the mistakes we’ve made before. As it’s said, history repeats itself because we’ve failed to understand the lessons of history. Certainly, my mentor taught through story telling because we know that business is business and it fundamentally hasn’t changed so long as societies have existed (except for the recently dot-com new new economy that fooled so many). Your site reminds me of this principle and am glad to have the opportunity to contribute some good learnings to your blog’s readers.
Cheers,
-Lui
Hello again Liu,
Thanks once more for your kind words!
Finding ways to share information among project teams is, of course, a great device for strengthening overall performance. One of the challenges in this regard is to encourage the sharing of success stories – many people like to keep these close to the vest to help them continue to stand out. So, ways should be experimented with to incentivize this.
Thanks again for your visit and kind comments, as well as your own work and writing.
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[...] Some time ago we looked at Peter Drucker’s views on what managers do. But what about the organization itself – how is it to be designed to help managers grow power, as Mary Parker Follett argued it should, in such a way that it is available as capacity where needed? [...]
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