The Dimensions of Management
The Essential Drucker Peter F. Drucker
Business enterprises—and public-service institutions as well—are organs of society. They do not exist for their own sake, but to fulfill a specific social purpose and to satisfy a specific need of a society, a community, or individuals. They are not ends in themselves, but means. The right question to ask in respect to them is not, what are they? But, what are they supposed to be doing and what are their tasks?
Management, in turn, is the organ of the institution.
The question, what is management, comes second. First we have to define management in and through its tasks.
There are three tasks, equally important but essentially different, that
management has to perform to enable the institution in its charge to function and to make its contribution.
Establishing the specific purpose and mission of the institution, whether business enterprise, hospital, or university;
Making work productive and the worker effective;
Managing social impacts and social responsibilities.
Mission
An institution exists for a specific purpose and mission; it has a specific social function. In the business enterprise, this means economic performance.
With respect to this first task, the task of economic performance, business and nonbusiness institutions differ. In respect to every other task, they are similar. But only business has economic performance as its specific mission; it is the definition of a business that it exists for the sake of economic performance. In all other institutions—hospital, church, university, or armed services—economic
considerations are a restraint. In business enterprise, economic performance is the rationale and purpose.
Business management must always, in every decision and action, put
economic performance first. It can justify its existence and its authority only by the economic results it produces. A business management has failed if it does not produce economic results. It has failed if it does not supply goods and services desired by the consumer at a price the consumer is willing to pay. It has failed if it does not improve, or at least maintain, the wealth-producing capacity of the economic resources entrusted to it. And this, whatever the economic or political structure or ideology of a society, means responsibility for profitability.
Worker Achievement
The second task of management is to make work productive and the worker
effective. A business enterprise (or any other institution) has only one true resource: people. It succeeds by making human resources productive. It accomplishes its goals through work. To make work productive is, therefore, an essential function. But at the same time, these institutions in today’s society are increasingly the means through which individual human beings find their livelihood, find their access to social status, to community and to individual achievement and satisfaction. To make the worker productive is, therefore, more and more important and is a measure of the performance of an institution. It is increasingly a task of management.
Organizing work according to its own logic is only the first step. The second and far more difficult one is making work suitable for human beings—and their logic is radically different from the logic of work. Making the worker achieving implies consideration of the human being as an organism having peculiar
physiological and psychological properties, abilities, and limitations, and a distinct mode of action.
Social Responsibilities
The third task of management is managing the social impacts and the social responsibilities of the enterprise. None of our institutions exists by itself and is an end in itself. Every one is an organ of society and exists for the sake of society. Business is no exception. Free enterprise cannot be justified as being good for business; it can be justified only as being good for society.
Business exists to supply goods and services to customers, rather than to supply jobs to workers and managers, or even dividends to stockholders. The hospital does not exist for the sake of doctors and nurses, but for the sake of patients whose one and only desire is to leave the hospital cured and never comeback. Psychologically, geographically, culturally, and socially, institutions must be part of the community.
To discharge its job, to produce economic goods and services, the business enterprise has to have impact on people, on communities, and on society. It has to have power and authority over people, e.g., employees, whose own ends and purposes are not defined by and within the enterprise. It has to have impact on the community as a neighbor, as the source of jobs and tax revenue (but also of waste products and pollutants). And, increasingly, in our pluralist society of organizations, it has to add to its fundamental concern for the quantities of life—i.e., economic goods and services—concern for the quality of life, that is, for the physical, human, and social environment of modern man and modern community.
A Philosophy of Management
What the business enterprise needs is a principle of management that will give full scope to individual strength and responsibility, and at the same time give common direction of vision and effort, establish team work, and harmonize the goals of the individual with the common weal.
The only principle that can do this is management by objectives and
self-control. It makes the commonweal the aim of every manager. It substitutes for control from outside the stricter, more exacting and more effective control from the inside. It motivates the manager to action not because somebody tells him to do something or talks him into doing it, but because the objective needs of his task demand it. He acts not because somebody wants him to but because he himself decides that he has to—he acts, in other words, as a free man.
Picking People the Basic Rules
Making the right people decisions is the ultimate means of controlling an organization well. Such decisions reveal how competent management is, what its values are, and whether it takes its job seriously. No matter how hard managers try to keep their decisions a secret—and some still try hard—people decisions cannot be hidden. They are eminently visible.
Decision-Making and the Computer
The Effective Executive Peter F. Drucker
As a result, decision-making can no longer be confined to the very small group at the top. In one way or another almost every knowledge worker in an organization will either have to become a decision-maker himself or will at least have to be able to play an active, an intelligent, and an autonomous part in the decision-making process. What in the past had been a highly specialized function, discharged by a small and usually clearly defined organ—with the rest adapting
within a mold of custom and usage—is rapidly becoming a normal if not an everyday task of every single unit in this new social institution, the large-scale knowledge organization. The ability to make effective decisions increasingly determines the ability of every knowledge worker, at least of those in responsible positions, to be effective altogether.
There are additional implications of the computer for decision-making. If properly used, for instance, it should free senior executives from much of the preoccupation with events inside the organization to which they are now being condemned by the absence or tardiness of reliable information. It should make it much easier for the executive to go and look for himself on the outside; that is, in the area where alone an organization can have results.
There is indeed ample reason why the appearance of the computer has sparked interest in decision-making. But the reason is not that the computer will “take over” the decision. The reason is that with the computer’s taking over computation, people all the way down the line in the organization will have to learn to be executives and to make effective decisions.
HR Training
Training and development managers and specialists conduct and supervise training and development programs for employees. Increasingly, management recognizes that training offers a way of developing skills, enhancing productivity and quality of work, and building worker loyalty to the firm, and most importantly,
increasing individual and organizational performance to achieve business results. Training is widely accepted as an employee benefit and a method of improving employee morale, and enhancing employee skills has become a business imperative. Increasingly, managers and leaders realize that the key to business growth and success is through developing the skills and knowledge of its workforce.Other factors involved in determining whether training is needed include the complexity of the work environment, the rapid pace of organizational and technological change, and the growing number of jobs in fields that constantly generate new knowledge, and thus, require new skills. In addition, advances in learning theory have provided insights into how adults learn, and how training can be organized most effectively for them.Training managers provide worker training either in the classroom or onsite. This includes setting up teaching materials prior to the class, involving the class, and issuing completion certificates at the end of the class. They have the responsibility for the entire learning process, and its environment, to ensure that the course meets its objectives and is measured and evaluated to understand how learning impacts business results.Training specialists plan, organize, and direct a wide range of training activities. Trainers respond to corporate and worker service requests. They consult with onsite supervisors regarding available performance improvement services and conduct orientation sessions and arrange on-the-job training for new employees. They help all employees maintain and improve their job skills, and possibly prepare for jobs requiring greater skill. They help supervisors improve their interpersonal skills in order to deal effectively with employees. They may set up individualized training plans to strengthen an employee’s existing skills or teach new ones. Training specialists in some companies set up leadership or
executive development programs among employees in lower level positions. These programs are designed to develop leaders, or “groom” them, to replace those leaving the organization and as part of a succession plan. Trainers also lead programs to assist employees with job transitions as a result of mergers and acquisitions, as well as technological changes. In government-supported training programs, training specialists function as case managers. They first assess the training needs of clients and then guide them through the most appropriate training method. After training, clients may either be referred to employer relations representatives or receive job placement assistance.Planning and program development is an essential part of the training specialist’s job. In order to identify and assess training needs within the firm, trainers may confer with managers and supervisors or conduct surveys. They also evaluate training effectiveness to ensure that the training employees receive helps the organization meet its strategic business goals and achieve results.Depending on the size, goals, and nature of the organization, trainers may differ considerably in their
responsibilities and in the methods they use. Training methods include on-the-job training; operating schools that duplicate shop conditions for trainees prior to putting them on the shop floor; apprenticeship training; classroom training; and electronic learning, which may involve interactive Internet-based training, multimedia programs, distance learning, satellite training, other computer-aided instructional technologies, videos, simulators, conferences, and workshops
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resource_management
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%BA%E5%8A%9B%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86
http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=FciK6xtWfy0C&pg=PT166&lpg=PT166&dq=Private+Enterprise+human+resource+management&source=web&ots=OFncstpski&sig=6f_0AsxbQZFRexeS08L8UAT_Zf8&hl=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_resource_management_topics
http://books.google.com.sg/books?hl=en&id=9fWF_ndSCcAC&dq=human+resource+management&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=4xwIYBuMf9&sig=6qfNhxSFoKD-_s0NWnwVdVS-vHk
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http://books.google.com.sg/books?hl=en&id=Gu1YWQGHgLcC&dq=human+resource+management&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=H7SbJNAizE&sig=Y3GssDjBHljJr3aRrmVgCaA9gTY
http://books.google.com.sg/books?hl=en&id=bnAiaXdzbRwC&dq=human+resource+management&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=NbX4F8U9oG&sig=umxDaoU05w_dZkxyT_usnZH5lR0
http://books.google.com.sg/books?hl=en&id=Vs98_GTpU5EC&dq=human+resource+management&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=571NexI6ER&sig=i8A4B8m2nb1LkNv8UrzVcgm2XI8
http://books.google.com.sg/books?hl=en&id=aQpPzvu4eC0C&dq=human+resource+management&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=9c4a-JsUBC&sig=N8_-lXARbKr61H9yKwrhNcPQF8Y
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