PETER DRUCKER:

THE MAN WHO

INVENTED
MANAGEMENT

LIS 404 – Spring 2010

MINI-BIOGRAPHY
 Peter Drucker was born in Vienna, Austria in 1909.
 Grew up in atmosphere that encouraged education and
intellectual growth.
 Moved to London in 1933.

 Had two pieces of writing banned by Nazis.

 Moved to the U.S. in 1937 and became a U.S. citizen in

1943.
 Taught at: Bennington (1942-1949),
NYU (1950-1971) and Claremont
Graduate University (1971 – 2002).
 Died in 2005, at age 95.
WHY DRUCKER MATTERS
 Wrote 39 books (translated into many languages)
 Worked with major corporations (G&E, Proctor &
Gamble, Toyota, etc.) and non-profits (Salvation Army,
Girl Scouts of America, etc.)
 Wrote extensively about management practices
(especially regarding worker satisfaction & retention) in
non-profit sphere.
 Coined term “knowledge worker”

 Has influenced many modern management theorists.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF DRUCKER’S
THEORIES
 Management is a practice, not a science.
 Knowledge work is where the economy is headed.

 Respect for workers as individuals.

 Ethics and values are part of successful businesses.

 Customer service is the highest priority.

MANAGEMENT IS A PRACTICE, NOT A
SCIENCE.
 Drucker was dismissive of scientific management, and of
purely theoretical intuitive management theories.
 “Management is a practice rather than a science or a
profession, though containing elements of both. . . We
know far too little to put management into the
straitjacket of a “science”... We do know a good deal—
though the areas of ignorance and searching exceed the
areas in which we have truly firm, truly tested,
knowledge, and the ‘right answer.’”
Management: Revised Edition pg 11.
MANAGEMENT IS A PRACTICE NOT
SCIENCE, CON’T
 What is management?
 It is about human beings.
 It is deeply intertwined with the culture of where it is practiced.
 Organizations must have commitment to common goals and have
shared values which management reinforces.
 Every organization is a place where learning and teaching goes on.
This is facilitated by managers.
 Employees must communicate and have personal responsibility.
 The “bottom line” and amount of widgets produced are not complete
measures of the performance of management or employees.
 Positive results only exist when a customer is satisfied.
Management: Revised Edition, pg 23-24.
KNOWLEDGE WORKERS
 Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” in 1959 in
his book Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New
“Post-Modern” World.
 Knowledge workers own their own means of production
(information).
 They are people with theoretical knowledge and
education.
 They organize and synthesize information.
TRAITS OF KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
 Borderlessness, because knowledge travels even more
effortlessly than money.
 Upward mobility, available to everyone through easily
acquired formal education.
 The potential for failure as well as success. Anyone can
acquire the “means of production”—that is, the
knowledge required for the job—but not everyone can
win.
Management: Revised Edition, pg 37
MANAGEMENT & KNOWLEDGE
WORKERS
 Drucker repeatedly used metaphor of conductor and
symphony.
 The conductor needs to ensure all members of symphony
work together for maximum benefit.
 The conductor provides direction to skilled musicians.

 Musicians constantly work to improve their skills and

knowledge.
 Musicians have mobility. They own their means of
production (musical skill) and can leave at will.
RESPECT FOR WORKERS
 Because knowledge workers are highly mobile, Drucker
believed job satisfaction was key to retaining them.
 An organization has potential for greatness if every
employee can answer yes to these questions:
RESPECT FOR WORKERS
 Because knowledge workers are highly mobile, Drucker
believed job satisfaction was key to retaining them.
 An organization has potential for greatness if every
employee can answer yes to these questions:
 Are you treated every day with dignity and respect by
everyone you encounter?
 Are you given the things that you need—education and
training and encouragement and support—so that you make
a contribution?
 Do people notice that you did it?
Definitive Drucker, pg 158
IMPROVING KNOWLEDGE WORKER
PRODUCTIVITY
 Define the task.
 Focus on the task.

 Define results.

 Define quality.

 Grant autonomy to the knowledge worker.

 Demand accountability.

 Build into tasks continuous learning and teaching.

Management: Revised Edition, pg 209
ETHICS AND VALUES ARE PART OF
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES
 “A healthy business, a healthy university, a healthy
hospital cannot exist in a sick society. Management has a
self-interest in a healthy society.”
Management: Revised Edition, pg 213
 “A man might. . . lack judgment and ability, and yet not
do too much damage as a manger. But if he lacks in
character and integrity. . . destroys. He destroys people,
the most valuable resource of the enterprise. He destroys
spirit. And he destroys performance.”
Management, Revised Edition, pg 287
CUSTOMER SERVICE IS CRUCIAL TO
SUCCESS
 “There is only one valid definition of business purpose:
to create a customer.”
Management: Revised edition, pg 98
 “It is the customer who determines what a business is,
what it produces and whether it will prosper.”
Essential Drucker, pg 43
 Creating customers is the result of marketing and
innovation.
 A business should research who is, and who is not, their
customer to better target goods and services.
PROBLEMS WITH DRUCKER:
THE LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
PROBLEMS WITH DRUCKER:
THE LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
 Drucker had some large blind spots in the areas of
gender and race.
 Drucker believed that education eliminated all
biases/barriers and the workplace was a level playing
field.
 Drucker didn’t consider how cultural and institutional
biases prevent accurate assessments of performance and
merit.
 These blind spots remained intact through his writing in
the 1990s and 2000s.
PROBLEMS WITH DRUCKER:
THE WEST DIDN’T ACTUALLY CREATE
EVERYTHING
 “Civilization is still mainly Western [and] Judeo-
Christian. . .
The future cannot be “non-Western.” Its material
civilization and knowledges all rest on Western
foundations: Western science, tools and technology,
production, economics. . . None of these can work unless
grounded in an understanding and acceptance of Western
ideas and of the entire Western tradition.”
Management: Revised Edition, pg 516
PROBLEMS WITH DRUCKER:
THERE IS NO SEXISM
 “Knowledge and knowledge jobs are equally accessible
to both sexes. As soon as there were a substantial
number of knowledge jobs, women began to qualify for
them, reach for them, and move into them.”
Managing in a Time of Great Change pg 281
 “The higher up the ladder we go in knowledge work, the
more likely it is that men and women are doing the same
work.”
Managing in a Time of Great Change pg 281
PROBLEMS WITH DRUCKER:
THERE IS NO SEXISM, CON’T
 Drucker sees “gender roles” as only existing and
affecting people in the past.
 Drucker manages to blame feminists for gender based
segregation in the work place.
 Drucker believes that in a knowledge economy, there is
no discrimination in employment. Everyone is able to
access education equally.
 By not acknowledging sexism, and how it negatively
affects women, Drucker doesn’t give managers a way to
address gender discrimination.
PROBLEMS WITH DRUCKER:
DIDN’T ADDRESS RACISM
 “In the forty years since World War II, the economic
position of the Negro in America improved faster than
that of any group in American social history—or in the
history of any country. Three-fifths of America’s Blacks
rose into middle-class incomes—before WWII the figure
was one-twentieth.”
Managing in a Time of Great Change pg 227
PROBLEMS WITH DRUCKER:
DIDN’T ADDRESS RACISM, CON’T

 “The economically rational thing to do for a young

Black in America from 1945 to 1980 was not to stay in
school and to learn. It was to leave school as early as
possible and to get one of the plentiful mass production
jobs. Black youngsters…could not easily identify with
cousins who were dentists, accountants, lawyers—which
meant they were twenty years older and had sat in
schools for at least sixteen years.”
Managing in a Time of Great Change pg 227-228
UNEVEN PLAYING FIELDS & BASEBALL
UNEVEN PLAYING FIELDS & BASEBALL

 Prior to 1947, no African Americans were allowed to

play in Major League baseball.
UNEVEN PLAYING FIELDS & BASEBALL

 Prior to 1947, no African Americans were allowed to

play in Major League baseball.
 Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947 joining the
Brooklyn Dodgers.
UNEVEN PLAYING FIELDS & BASEBALL

 Prior to 1947, no African Americans were allowed to

play in Major League baseball.
 Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947 joining the
Brooklyn Dodgers.
 In 1959 the last segregated team, the
Boston Red Sox, hired a black player.
They had turned down stellar black
players such as Jackie Robinson and
Willie Mays.
UNEVEN PLAYING FIELDS & BASEBALL
 During the period of segregation, many MLB records
were set, some of which still stand.
 Arguably, MLB records set prior to 1947 are not entirely
accurate because the records were not set by athletes
playing against all the best professionals. They were set
by people playing against all the best professional white
players.
QUESTIONS?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Drucker, Peter (2008). Management: Revised Edition.
New York: HarperCollins.
 Drucker, Peter (1995). Managing in a Time of Great
Change. New York: TrumanTally Books.
 Edersheim, Elizabeth Haas (2007). The Definitive
Drucker. New York: McGraw-Hill.
 Information Outlook Staff (2002). “The Icon Speaks: An
Interview with Peter Drucker.” Information Outlook
6(2).