Peter Drucker, "The Age of Social Transformation"

Peter Drucker, author of twenty-nine books which have been translated into more than twenty languages, is one of the most influential writers today on modern organizations and their management. Considered the founder of modern managerial theory, Drucker has spent the past sixty years writing about alternatives to the Taylorist model for maximizing efficiency in the workplace, alternatives that seek to provide working conditions that allow all employees to realize their potential. In the words of Scott Stossel, executive editor of The American Prospect, "Many of the terms and metaphors by which we apprehend contemporary society -- Global Economy, Knowledge Worker, Information Society, Postmodern -- are concepts conceived of or developed by Drucker. Indeed, even the invention of 'management' as the self-conscious art and science of governing our companies, our institutions, and ourselves is generally credited" to Drucker.

Born in Vienna in 1909, Drucker worked as a journalist before moving to the United States in 1937. Convinced that corporations could serve as a powerful force for creating citizens and for fostering the economic conditions that stave off totalitarianism, Drucker spent the World War II years producing a report on the managerial practices of General Motors, Concept of the Corporation, which became an instant classic. In the many books that have followed, Drucker has demonstrated a knack for being the first to discern major trends in the business industry, such as the rise of the knowledge worker (which he discusses in "The Age of Social Transformation"), the growing importance of nonprofit organizations in democratic societies, and the role that pension funds play in shaping both economic policy and economic performance. And, despite sustained criticism in the business community that management must be concerned first and foremost with the bottom line, Drucker has consistently maintained that creating democratic workplaces with egalitarian pay structures is the best way to promote corporate profitability and global economic health.

Currently the Marie Rankin Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management and the Dean of the Peter F. Drucker School of Graduate Management at Claremont Graduate University, Drucker continues to lead seminars for advanced graduate students and executives that explore the role of corporations in contemporary society. And, convinced of the importance of lifelong learning and of the necessity of getting corporations to fulfill their obligation to improve the quality of life in the local community and more generally, Drucker established the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management in 1990, which provides a venue for executive and policymakers to ask the question: Can the business community, its managers, and its investors find ways to advance the social good, or does the corporate commitment to profit at any cost rule out such ventures?

"The Age of Social Transformation" originally appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1994.
Digital Image © by Clairemont Graduate University. Citation drawn from Scott Stossel's interview with Jack Brady, which is entitled, "The Author of Modernity," The Atlantic Monthly, Jan 29, 1998.

Links to explore:

Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management: Founded in 1990, this organization provides educational opportunities and resources consistent with its mission of leading social sector organizations towards excellence in performance. Includes links to additional articles by and about Peter Drucker.

Peter F. Drucker School of Graduate Management: This school offers "a place where furthering the practice of management starts with enriching the lives of [its] students." It offers a variety of degrees for different levels of managers and uses a "high-tech, high-touch" approach.

Tomorrow's Jobs: Uses data from the 1988-2008 employment projections to discuss labor force, education and training, occupation, and industry trends. Provides a good summary of these trends and also offers charts to illustrate the data.

AFL-CIO and the Teamsters: Together, these groups represent two of the most powerful unions in America. Their homepages explore their economic and social agendas while providing resources for their large membership base and news on union actions across the country.

Knowledge Workers Internet: This organization is devoted to "knowledge workers," mainly Information Technology (IT) professionals. It provides information, discussions, resources, and job opportunities for these workers.

Questions for learning:

• Both the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management and the Peter F. Drucker School of Graduate Management are named for Drucker, which seems to correspond to "social sector" and "knowledge worker" elements in his essay. Explore both sites with Drucker's essay in mind. Is the foundation a product of knowledge workers assuming social sector responsibilities? Does the school of management train knowledge workers with such an impulse to the social sector?
  

• Drucker argues that the knowledge worker will replace the industrial worker, who will become "an auxiliary employee." However, he doesn't really provide a lot of evidence to support these claims. Read through the Bureau of Labor Statistics' report on employment trends for the future. Does the data support Drucker's claim that the knowledge worker is ascendant? Is there evidence of the continued strength of the industrial or blue-collar worker? Is the need for "a habit of continuous learning" needed for future jobs according to the report?
  

• Use the AFL-CIO and Teamsters union homepages to test Drucker's claim that "Union power has been declining . . . fast." Do these pages suggest that unions are losing power or that they maintain a strong hold on social and economic power? Do they show allegiances to the social sector in ways that knowledge workers do not?
  

• For Drucker, a knowledge worker ranges from an X-ray technician to a neurosurgeon. However, as the Knowledge Workers Internet site suggests, the term has taken on a new meaning with the explosion of computers and the web. How does this site define the knowledge worker? Do computers represent yet another "Age of Social Transformation" that Drucker's model cannot accommodate?

Questions for connecting:

• According to Peter Drucker, "The extreme social transformations of this century have caused hardly any stir. They have proceeded with a minimum of friction, with a minimum of upheavals, and, indeed, with a minimum of attention from scholars, politicians, the press, and the public." Does Jasper Becker's work on Mao's Great Leap Forward confirm, complicate, or contradict this statement by Peter Drucker? If societies aren't transformed by great acts of violence and political aggression, they how are they changed? Does individual human agency have any meaningful role to play in this process?

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