The Peter F. Drucker Reader: Selected Articles from the Father of Modern Management Thinking

Description

The best of Drucker all in one place Peter Drucker revolutionized management thinking before there was management thinking. For nearly half a century he inspired and educated managers-and powerfully shaped the nature of business-with his landmark articles in Harvard Business Review. Through Drucker's unique lens, this volume presents a rare opportunity to trace the evolution of the great shifts in organizations and to grasp more firmly the role of managers in the ongoing effort to balance change with continuity. The book also offers managers and executives a collection of best practices as well as introspective questions that will help them improve as organizational leaders. Infused with a perspective that holds new relevance today, these selections reveal a celebrated thinker at his best. Drucker paints a clear and comprehensive picture of management thinking and practice-both as it is and as it will be.

Peter F. Drucker (1909-2005) is one of the best-known and most widely influential thinkers on the subject of management theory and practice, and his writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern corporation. Often described as "the father of modern management theory," Drucker explored how people are organized across the business, government, and nonprofit sectors of society; he predicted many of the major business developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization, the rise of Japan to economic world power, the critical importance of marketing, and the emergence of the information society with its implicit necessity of lifelong learning. In 1959, Drucker coined the term "knowledge worker" and in his later life considered knowledge-worker productivity to be the next frontier of management. Peter Drucker died on November 11, 2005, in Claremont, California. He had four children and six grandchildren. You can find more about Peter F. Drucker at cgu.edu/center/the-drucker-institute.

PRAISE FOR PETER F. DRUCKER: "The man who invented management." - Businessweek "Drucker gave us the language, the metaphor, the lens, the understanding of the role of management as the critical function." - Jim Collins, author, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don't "Like many philosophers, he spoke in plain language that resonated with ordinary managers. Consequently, simple statements from him have influenced untold numbers of daily actions; they did mine over decades." - Andy Grove, founder, Intel Corp. "The king of management gurus." - The Economist