Peter F. Drucker symposia on organization mission, managerial and company consensus, employee maximization and placement, industry change, organizational bureaucracy, American versus European organizations, and Japanese organizational practices
The panelists then begin taking questions from the audience, and the first concerns who decides on the mission for the organization. Dr. Warrington Parker responds by providing an example of an organization in which a consensus emerged that the company’s mission needed to stay within the bounds of where the general manager is comfortable. However, the minute the manager allows it to go consensus, there is a possibility that that will be the vision everyone can abide by. In responding to another question, Parker states that there are potential charter problems across divisions, and that one should not try to solve them there--the marketplace, instead, should decide how such problems are handled. Should it come to a critical issue, then action should be taken. He goes on to relate that general managers have usually always made decisions, and they are usually surprised at the similarities concerning where they are and where the rest of the group is. Drucker goes on to respond to a question concerning interdisciplinary departments, stating that the challenge to the modern university, and modern education, is a great one, because the mission for education and educational institutions has been lost sight of and diluted. He also states that disciplines, in general, must be continuously redefined. As it relates to unity, the essential thing is the shared vision, or common mission, and without it, an organization has feuds. Parker then affirms his agreement with Drucker’s points, and Drucker then responds to another question regarding how to get people with competing strengths and interests to work together. He states that two axes are needed: discipline/field skills and knowledge of others. However, Drucker observes that three basic, essential process courses are not taught, namely, how to be an employee; how does an organization work; how to manage one’s boss; and, how to take responsibility for one’s own career. Another question concerns how one solves standardization issues among one’s human capital, and Parker states that it is not unusual to have small, centralized functions that may be of a magnitude that serves all, though not dedicated to any one specific task/team. Drucker then emphasizes the importance of placement--a manager should be searching for potential weaknesses in their employees to get a sense of if they belong in another part of an organization. As people get older and change, placement becomes increasingly important, and one learns from the successful organizations outside of one’s own. Most managers, Drucker states, believe that they are working on tomorrow, but a good manager works on yesterday. Then, the manager looks for people that solve his problem. Being loyal to one’s specialty can be in conflict with one’s shared goal to one’s company. On another audience question concerning the best methods to facilitate transitions, Parker notes how leaders are ones that, when the business is doing well, and before it begins to bend a little, they begin to examine their own markets and business and make the necessary changes ahead of time. Drucker adds that the U.S. has restructured certain industries, such as in steel, and that the U.S. is ahead of other countries in this respect by about ten years. Over the course of the next several years there will be exceeding unhappiness in these industries, because young people’s expectations coming in to such fields will not be realized because the pipelines are very full. On a question concerning the suppression of innovation due to organizational bureaucracy, Parker responds that eradicating bureaucracy is an ongoing process that has taken several years to accomplish. Drucker adds that bureaucracy was created largely because young people starting out, such as himself, did not have enough experience, and they had to be given the answers because they had not learned how to ask the questions. However, Drucker states that, today, people are largely past that. The panelists then receive a question concerning whether craftsmen specialists have the ability to be managers/leaders, and Drucker responds that many craftsmen do not want to lead. The question has become one of information, and how management no longer comes out of the organization itself. Good craftsmen feel that managing and leading people is silly and trivial. On the next audience question concerning management, Drucker states that one cannot manage multidimensionally--it must be done task by task, one thing at a time. Drucker then takes a question concerning the relationship between European and American organizations, with Drucker stating that American corporations are ahead of any European ones, and predicts that American corporations will look upon a liberalizing economic structure in the U.S. as freedom. The great challenge, according to Drucker, is for medium-sized American companies, which have not been active exporters, and are not niche players, to welcome the innovation and expansion that will bring them prosperity. West then closes the session asking Drucker about Japanese management and whether specialists have an advantage in organizations today. Drucker argues that such Japanese organizations are unraveling, but also states that the Japanese ability to innovate and turn organizations around should not be underestimated.
Drucker, Peter F. (Peter Ferdinand), 1909-2005 New York University New York University. Graduate School of Business Administration Mission statements Management Management - Employee participation Management by objectives Colleges and universities Education Education - Curricula Education, Higher Problem solving Innovation Bureaucracy United States Europe Japan Specialists Specialization Symposia Parker, Dr. Warrington Placement responsibility
Source
Original recording, April 13, 1988; Drucker Archives; Box 68
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