Peter F. Drucker symposia and question and answer session on management, organizational productivity and structure, equalizing power structures, business obligations, and employee selection and movement
Professor Tom Gladwin, who is standing in for Dean Robert Hawkins, serves as the moderator for the second day of the Peter F. Drucker symposia. He goes on to describe a change in the format from the previous day, and Drucker begins his talk discussing an anecdote on the topic of chief executive management. He states that the formation of people is the chief concern in the new era because, increasingly, we will have multinational companies, and research will have to be performed where the researchers are. New complexities will therefore make the simpler, traditional structures hard to operate in, and one has to, therefore, demand that new structural principles be implemented. Drucker says that this requirement is not possible because there are not any available--only patchwork is available. He goes on to say that, in the history of organizations, there have been two very simple principles. After identifying these principles, Drucker goes on to say that they have strict requirements and severe limitations. Beyond these operations, the old organization does not and cannot work. Responding to Bob Hawkins’s comments, Drucker states that rotating people on their way up the corporate ladder is not literally true in Japanese industry. He goes on to state that one should not make the typical mistake of managers, which is to believe that there is only one value system--that of the corporation. Organizations are not mechanical, Drucker stresses, and information coming in as energy is the major element in all organizational transactions. One has to organize production with new energy, as well as structure, and new purchasing agents will have to think through these attributes. The question always has to be, what is the best structure of an organization that makes it possible for people to work. The structure of an organization must always support its scaffolding, and personnel questions should center around what the individual has to learn and what responsibility he/she should take to support the structure. The move is toward biological, organic models in organizations, which have several axes and depend on configurations. William May then takes over the discussion and begins talking about the extent to which he agrees with Drucker, and how his disagreements with him are, really, a matter of degree. He proceeds to note that the business world is in a period of rapid change, as the single point of decision making is gone. The CEO, or chief executive title, is relatively new, according to May, and was a product of World War II. The complexities and change in business structure have been brought about by the more rapid growth of government institutions. Entitlements have not been met, and society is looking in the direction of private enterprise to fulfill such entitlements. If the businessperson assumes, in taking on such societal obligations, that he or she will be loved, the businessperson should rethink such assumptions. May goes on to observe that the final decision-making point is moving away from those in the upper echelon of management (CEOs), and important decisions are being made, increasingly, in a peer format. Because of these complex management changes, the term matrix management has been adopted and implemented. Another aspect of the business world is the understanding that every successful big business is a bunch of small businesses. May then distinguishes between strategic planning from business planning, wherein strategic planning comes from the top, while business planning comes from the bottom. Business planning must ultimately fall within the guidelines of strategic planning. With decentralization, two things are needed. One is a good control mechanism, while the other is communication, essential for interpersonal relationships. This helps to break up personality complexes. Multinationals in organizations transmit across geographical lines, and transmit across three stages. The first stage involves putting one’s own people in the foreign site; in the second stage, operations are populated overseas with nationals; and, third, the best people are picked for the job, regardless of nationality or origin. With respect to international operations, a trend line toward nationalism, sovereignty, and restrictive trade practices is occurring, which inhibit the transfer and performance of the free market. May states that there is something to be learned from management practices of non-American entities, namely in their contributions toward opportunities and problem-solving. Drucker and Hawkins then begin responding to questions from the audience, the first concerning the impact of the increasing dual-career family. Drucker affirms that it is necessary to acknowledge spouses in making offers to potential employees, citing the operation of universities as an example. Hawkins responds that, on the industrial scene, dual careers have inhibited the physical transfer of people for training purposes, and positions have often been offered to spouses in order to secure their partner in an organization. Drucker states that, sometimes, an employee will say no to certain positions or transfers because they do not want to disrupt their family, and provides the example of a family with a child that has down syndrome. Hawkins adds that the individual probably knows where they belong. Personnel/employee maximization functions in large, complex organizations, he continues, should be accomplished by considering every available candidate.
Drucker, Peter F. (Peter Ferdinand), 1909-2005 New York University New York University. Graduate School of Business Administration Gladwin, Tom W., 1935- Hawkins, Bob Management Management by objectives Management science Values Change World War II Government ownership Government policy Problem solving Planning Decentralization in management Communication Multinational corporations Nationalism Families Symposia
Source
Original recording, April 22, 1981; Drucker Archives; Box 68
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