University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Management
Book

Management

Peter F. Drucker
HarperBusiness, 2008
First Edition: 1973
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Editorial Rating

10

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

To say that Peter F. Drucker wrote the book on management is absolutely accurate, but only if you make that plural. During his long lifetime, “the founding father of the study of management” published 34 major works, including 15 on the art and science of enterprise management. Drucker had a front-row seat for the managerial exploits of the 20th century’s leading corporations, and this update to his 1973 classic Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices includes his kaleidoscopic take on many of them. Revised by Joseph A. Maciariello to incorporate Drucker’s later writings, this version lucidly covers every aspect of management, plus a remarkably diverse array of topics such as nonprofits, service organizations, corporate governance and “knowledge workers” (a term Drucker used to describe white-collar, skilled professionals in the labor force). getAbstract confirms that if you want to learn about management, you cannot do better than read Drucker’s acknowledged masterpiece. This is the bedrock business book.

Summary

Modern Enterprises Need Managers

The rise of management as an organizational discipline arguably is the most important business development of the 20th century. Management practices came into demand when labor transitioned from manual work to “knowledge work.” In the early 1900s, 90% of those employed anywhere in the world had blue-collar or domestic service jobs. As economies and businesses grew, the need for skilled professionals grew as well. “Knowledge workers” carry their skills with them; they “own their means of production.” And as companies sought to compete on a basis other than cost, the quality and efficiency of their managers became the “competitive advantage” that could set one firm apart from the others.

One telling case history illustrates the critical role that managers play in a big organization. Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company in 1905. Fifteen years later, Ford was the pre-eminent US automobile manufacturer. Yet by 1927, it had fallen to a distant third in US car manufacturing, a position it clung to for the next two decades. Why did it plunge so far so fast? Henry Ford did not believe in management; his corporate concept posited an all...

About the Author

Peter F. Drucker (1909-2005) was an influential thinker and writer on management theory and practice. Joseph A. Maciariello was Drucker’s collaborator for 26 years.

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