Druckers View of Management and Leadership - Assignment Example

?PART THE MANAGEMENT MODEL 1 Drucker’s view of management and leadership 11 Drucker’s five point operation in management In the view of Drucker(1989, p. 3), management is a process that deals with bringing out the strengths of people in a harnessed way to make them work together effectively. In other words, management involves the task of bringing together different skills, talents, abilities and knowledge and putting them together in a manner that ensures the achievement of a common goal (Gilmore and Williams, 2009). In the opinion of Drucker (1989), the role of managers may best be viewed from five major perspectives as discussed below: Set Objectives – It is said that if you do not know where you are going, any route takes you there. This means that managing without a goal can never guarantee the achievement of results. Managers are therefore admonished to at every point in time, set specific, time-bound and measurable goals that are realistic to achieve. Organises – Because managers work with different people with different talents, they must be on top of the distribution of roles to different people (Thompson and McHugh, 2009). This is what organisation is all about. Motivates and communicates – In the delivery of their duties, motivating subordinates will always ensure that managers spark up an inner will for performance to take place (Arnold, J. et al, 2005). Communication will also ensure that there is adequate understanding of policies and workplace ideas. Measures – There should be yardsticks that should measure the achievement of goals set by managers. It is only when there is a measure that can be evaluation of achievements and failures. Develop people – Though managers will always have a task to perform, the major task should be seen as the development of people through distribution of right roles (Bailey, 1983). This is because it is only when people are developed that tasks becomes competed because tasks are always completed by the people. 1.12 Drucker’s Management by Objective framework In order that managers will not at any point in time be too focused on their tasks and forget the actual underlying objectives for which the tasks are being performed, Drucker (1989) came out with the framework of managing by objectives, which came to be known as MBO. The major emphasis that the framework draws is that goal setting is always an important aspect of management. Goal setting is important to management implementation because it sets the tone for the kind of planning that needs to be done and the levels of inputs needed to achieve the set goals (Clegg, Hardy & Nord, 1996). As part of the framework, the need to make team work an important focus of success is treated. This is because managers indeed cannot know what each member on the team is doing but once clear objectives are assigned to each member, managers can be assured that members on the team will work around their objectives to bring about the achievement of set goals (Drucker, 1989). 1.2 Advantages of Drucker’s method to the Fashion Industry The management models, put forth by Drucker, more importantly the five point operation in management has several advantages when applied in the modern day fashion industry. Using Adidas, which is a German multinational corporation as an example, there are a number of ways that the management of the company can be said to have benefited from the application of the five point operation management proposed by Drucker (1989). In this regard, Mr. Herbert Hainer, who is the chairman of Adidas, can be used as a model and example. As far as the setting of objectives is concerned, Adidas is one company that has been praised by analysts and experts in the management literature as having specific objectives for each day of the company’s existence (Scott, 2013). This is because in line with what Drucker proposes; Mr. Hainer ensures that the company does not only operate on long term goals but on short to medium term objectives that are always crafted around various departments and groups within the company. The idea has always been that, it is only when these specific short term goals are achieved that the collective long term goal of the company, such as annual productivity levels can be said to be achieved (Farnham, 2012). Leading up to the specific short term objectives that are set by the company, the chairman has always ensured that the collective work of the company is always divided into manageable and minute tasks, which are distributed to the best and most competent people on his staff. This practice clearly relates to the part of the five point operation management that touches on organizing. For the fashion industry, organization of roles can never be underestimated if companies want to stay in the competition. This is because for a company such as Adidas, there are always several aspects of the fashion industry that it operates. Some of these are footwear, sportswear, sports equipment and toiletries. To this end, it is always important to ensure that the specific tasks within these areas of the industry are assigned to the best brains within the corporation to bring about results. Motivation has also been used as an important tool for developing people. This is because as part of the policies of Mr. Hainer, the best way to motivate his workers is to “make the workers do” (Farnham, 2012). This means that employee engagement has always been a central part of business at Adidas (Scott, 2013). Meanwhile, in the five point operation management, the task of developing people, which the manager ought to do has been seen to come about when the people within the company are seen as the most important asset of the company. Finally, it can be concluded that through the application of the various models and methods proposed by Drucker, Adidas continues to remain a key competitor in the fashion industry. As of 2012, the company had a revenue of €14.488 billion with profit of €1185 million , seen under the chairmanship of Mr. Herbert Hainer (Elkin and Law, 2013). This margin of profit was a rise over the 2011 and 2010 figures. Meanwhile, Mr. Hainer has always used the rate of profit rise as a measure of his management success. 1.3 Limitation of Drucker’s method in that industry A major limitation that has been identified with Drucker’s method is its complexity, whereby it has been seen as a model that requires so many techniques and skills to ensure that it is successfully implemented (Thorley, 2008). Meanwhile, most aspects of the model exclude some of the most traditional forms of organizational operations such as organizational culture and nature of business. In literature, it has been noted that organizations that refuse to adhere to some of the most basic traditional systems of organization operations such as organizational culture have failed to remain competitive (Thompson and McHugh, 2009). For example there have instances where major stakeholders and customers of companies have showed apathy towards major organizational cultural changes. This happened in the case of Adidas when the company decided to change its emblem in 1999. Finally, it has been said that Drucker’s method does not give much attention to subordinate staff as it gives to managers when it comes to the setting of objectives. Meanwhile, for most governmental and public institutions, the number of employees at non-managerial positions is considered to be far more than those at the managerial hierarchy. What this means is that, managers always have to double their roles as supervisors if they indeed want to know what their employees are doing in detail. Until such a time, it can be concluded that indeed, “Managers cannot be expected to know what their teams are doing in detail. Give individuals some clear objectives and teams will manage themselves to get the work done” (Drucker, 1989). CITED WORKS Arnold, J. et al (2005) Work Psychology: Understanding human behaviour in the workplace 4th ed. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall. Bailey J (1983), Job Design and Work Organization, London, Prentice-Hall International Inc Clegg S R, Hardy C & Nord W R (Eds) (1996), Handbook of Organization Studies, London, Sage Drucker P F (1989), Why service institutions do not perform, in Riches C & Morgan C (Eds), Human Resource Management in Education, Milton Keynes, Open University Press Elkin J and Law D (2013), Managing Information, Open University Press, Buckingham Farnham, D (2012), Managing Academic Staff in Changing University Systems: International Trends and Comparisons, SRHE, Buckingham Gilmore, S. and Williams, S. (2009) Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Scott, D (2013), Realism and Educational Research: New Perspectives and Possibilities, London, Routledge Falmer Thompson, P. and McHugh, D. (2009) Work Organisations: A critical approach, 4th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Thorley H (Ed) (2008), Take a minute: Reflections on modern higher education administration, Unit for Innovation in HE, Lancaster University Read More