In this project, I am going to read and organize the complete works of the management pioneer Peter Drucker, beginning with The End of Economic Man (1939) and ending with Managing in the Next Society (2002). I undertake this project not because I have any thought of improving my managerial skills, as I have just completed twenty years of academic management and believe that I am honestly looking forward to the independence that I have acquired. I am reading Drucker because I believe that he will help me understand that he will help me (and helps us all) understand the growth of technology that dominates our society. In particular, I am interested in the technology of software, which appeared in the last half of the twentieth century. Drucker, afterall, coined the term “Knowledge Worker” and, as I can see it, Knowledge workers would have little scope were not their activities supported by software.
So I begin. My list has 30 books and a much longer list of articles. I will probably focus only the books, as I believe they include the most complete statement of Drucker’s ideas. I’ll include the articles only as they add new material or bring new insight to his ideas. So tomorrow, I begin with Drucker’s first book in English, The End of Economic Man.
No comments:
Post a Comment