Management Challenges for the 21st Century (Paperback)

by Peter F. Drucker (Author) "BASIC ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT REALITY are the PARADIGMS of a social science, such as management..." (more)
Key Phrases: one right organization, collapsing birthrate, individual knowledge worker, United States, World War, General Motors (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
No single person has influenced the course of business in the 20th century as much as Peter Drucker. He practically invented management as a discipline in the 1950s, elevating it from an ignored, even despised, profession into a necessary institution that "reflects the basic spirit of the modern age." Now, in Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Drucker looks at the profound social and economic changes occurring today and considers how management--not government or free markets--should orient itself to address these new realities.

Drucker sees the period we're living in as one of "PROFOUND TRANSITION--and the changes are more radical perhaps than even those that ushered in the 'Second Industrial Revolution' of the middle of the 19th century, or the structural changes triggered by the Great Depression and the Second World War." In the midst of all this change, he contends, there are five social and political certainties that will shape business strategy in the not-too-distant future: the collapsing birthrate in the developed world; shifts in distribution of disposable income; a redefinition of corporate performance; global competitiveness; and the growing incongruence between economic and political reality. Drucker then looks at requirements for leadership ("One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it"), the characteristics of the "new information revolution" (one should focus on the meaning of information, not the technology that collects it), productivity of the knowledge worker (unlike manual workers, knowledge workers must be seen as capital assets, not costs), and finally the responsibilities that knowledge workers must assume in managing themselves and their careers.

Drucker's writing career spans eight decades and the years have only served to sharpen his insight and perspective in a way that makes most other management texts seem derivative. While Management Challenges for the 21st Century is no quick airplane read, it is a wise and thought-provoking book that will both challenge and inspire the diligent reader. This book is for people who care about their businesses and careers in the information age--CEOs, managers, and knowledge workers. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
In his 31st work, esteemed sociologist Drucker follows his last major management work, Post-Capitalist Society (LJ 2/15/93), with his ideas on how the concept of management is changing, focusing on the major critical issues, problems, practices, and strategies management faces in the new century. Instead of offering a futurist set of predictions, Drucker discusses major challenges facing management that are already manifest in todays rapidly changing world. In a sweeping macro-level analysis of social, economic, and demographic changes at work across the globe, Drucker outlines the changing role of management, the new realities of strategy, how to lead in times of great change, how to develop new information sources for effective decision-making, and how individual workers must assume responsibility for managing their own careers. With his trademark keen insight and his ability to see connections among disparate forces, this visionary thinker has again produced an essential book for all libraries, especially academic collections.Dale F. Farris, Groves, TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; 1st edition (June 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887309992
• ISBN-13: 978-0887309991
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #174,845 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Timely of Peter Drucker's Books, April 4, 2000

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Management Challenges for the 21st Century (Hardcover)

MANAGEMENT CHALLEGES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY is a breakthrough work, even for Peter Drucker. Through 6 impressive essays, Professor Drucker sets the agenda for the next several decades, for every organization and individual. He begins by pointing out that the way most people think about management is all wrong, and immediately needs to be changed. He outlines the needed changes. He then picks the key strategy issues that will strongly affect all organizations for the next 50 years. Next, he points out that we live in turbulent times and that one must lead the changes that one's organization must make so they occur faster than for the competition. There is no choice for any organization, except to fail to survive. From there, he points out that we have information TECHNOLOGY, but very little information worth looking at on the devices the technology brings us. He goes on to define what must be done to create the right information. In a remarkable section, he then tells how to create knowledge worker productivity (something he has said in the past that no one knows how to do). Finally, he provides a remarkable essay on how to get the most out of yourself, for yourself. These essays were previewed in leading publications, and substantially improved from the originals. There is no repetition of his work and thinking from earlier books. This is like finding a whole new Peter Drucker. I especially loved the new examples that he included, as well as his historical references that only Peter Drucker can make. YOU ARE MAKING A BIG MISTAKE IF YOU FAIL TO BUY, READ, AND APPLY THE IMPORTANT LESSONS OF THIS BOOK. If you read only one book by Peter Drucker, read this one! I was especially pleased to see that he addressed the stalls that delay organizational progress such as the old habits reinforced by tradition, unwillingness to address the new through disbelief, poor communications at all levels (he states the rules that you must follow to be a better communicator and be more effective), needless interactions fostering mindless bureaucracy, the temptation to procrastinate (standing still in front of a truck about to run you over is a mistake you will not repeat), avoiding the unattractive key issues of your organiztion (he recommends doing the dirty jobs yourself for several weeks a year in order to understand how to improve), and failing to set high standards. As always, the book is filled with powerful questions that you can answer for yourself in order to accomplish much, much more and feel great while you do so. Read and apply the lessons of this book and you will have many more 2,000 percent solutions (achieving 20 times the usual results with the same resources or getting the same results 20 times faster).

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Six Major Factors of Knowledge Worker Productivity., November 5, 2000

By	Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Management Challenges for the 21st Century (Hardcover)

Peter F. Drucker writes in the Introduction, "...this is not a book of 'predictions,' not a book about the 'future.' The challenges and issues discussed in it are already with us in every one of the developed countries and in most of the emerging ones (e.g., Korea or Turkey). They can already be identified, discussed, analyzed and prescribed for. Some people, someplace, are already working on them. But so far very few organizations do, and very few executives. Those who do work on these challenges today, and thus prepare themselves and their institutions for the new challenges, will be the leaders and dominate tomorrow. Those who wait until these challenges have indeed become 'hot' issues are likely to fall behind, perhaps never to recover. This book is thus a Call for Action."

In this context, in Chapter 5 of this invaluable book, Drucker focuses on knowledge worker. He says that "the most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of management in the 20th century was the fifty-fold increase in the productivity of the 'manual worker' in manufacturing. The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of 'knowledge work' and the 'knowledge worker.' The most valuable assets of a 20th-century company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution, whether business or nonbusiness, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity."

Thus, he defines six major factors determine knowledge worker productivity as follows:

1. Knowledge worker productivity demands that we ask the question: "What is the task?"

2. It demands that we impose the responsibility for their productivity on the individual knowledge workers themselves. Knowledge workers have to manage themselves. They have to have authonomy.

3. Continuing innovation has to be part of the work, the task and the responsibility of knowledge workers.

4. Knowledge work requires continuous learning on the part of the knowledge worker, but equally continuous teaching on the part of the knowledge worker.

5. Productivity of the knowledge worker is not-at least not primarily-a matter of the quantity of output. Quality is at least as important.

6. Finally, knowledge worker productivity requires that the knowledge worker is both seen and treated as an "asset" rather than a "cost." It requires that knowledge workers want to work for the organization in preference to all other opportunities.

He argues that each of these requirements-except perhaps the last one-is almost the exact opposite of what is needed to increase the productivity of the manual worker.

Highly recommended.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Class act, November 30, 1999

By	Marsha Wilbanks (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Management Challenges for the 21st Century (Hardcover)

I've recently purchased some management books at Amazon, and this one is one of the best. Mr. Drucker has precise and plain spoken knowledge he imparts to us about the challenges that management face (motivation, competition, e.g.). His years of experience are easily shared in this book.

Other superb books I recommend that I have recently read are Ponder's "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills," and any Ken Blanchard or Warren Bennis book.