Skip to content

Category Archives: Management Trends

The progressive

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The tradition from which come today’s presumptive intellectuals suggests that there are people who inherently know better, and people who inherently do not. To claim membership of the former group requires that one believe in the existence and humble condition of the latter. Moreover, it demands that they interact with each other in a contemporary reflection of their historic relationship. The result is the modern progressive movement. . .

Also filed in Culture, Management | | Comments (1)

Book Review: The Definitive Drucker

Friday, March 14, 2008

The late Peter Drucker will likely be remembered as the most influential management thinker of the last 100 years - perhaps of all time. He was at once profound and prolific, writing widely on management and other topics. Certainly much has been written about him, as well. But the author of this book, Elizabeth Haas Edersheim, wrote it at the specific request of Drucker, and with the help of his close collaboration over the last sixteen months of his life. . .

Also filed in Book Reviews, Management Development, Management Skills, Peter Drucker | | Comments (0)

Management for management’s sake

Friday, November 30, 2007

If you read widely in the field, you may eventually begin to wonder what, exactly, management really is, anyway. It is so often discussed in reference to its actors - those who do it, those to whom it is done - that we forget to ask why it is done. And when we do, the answers are often also in reference to those actors - to develop leaders, to empower employees, even to raise them to the next level of consciousness and morality. There are several problems with this, but we’ll note just two, here . . .

Also filed in Management Skills, Organizational Leadership | | Comments (4)

Running away from our problems

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Management thinkers like to talk about large topics with grand import. Strategy, relationships - even science. And we soak this stuff up, hoping that a preemptive grasp of such as these will help us and our organizations get a jump on the competition. But sometimes it seems like the old story of the two guys running from a bear. When one of them, stopping to put on running shoes, is told he can’t outrun a bear, he answers, “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you.”

Also filed in Management Skills, Women in Management | | Comments (9)

The juggling act

Monday, November 5, 2007

Many of us from the baby boomer generation wryly comment about how hard it can be to juggle life’s competing demands on us. But the truth is, we are typically more concerned about juggling work’s competing demands - life is just a spectator at the show. Or, rather, life is the show, and we keep missing the curtain. The interesting thing is that, while we genuinely rue our inability to have it all, we criticize the younger generations - often quite harshly - which try to take a more balanced approach to life and work.

Also filed in Innovation, Management Skills | | Comments (2)