The End of Management?

This is a guest post by Chris Cardiff. In Chris's words he, "struggles to teach and apply MBM as a member of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation MBM team."

The end of management? That's the title of a major article in the Wall Street Journal on August 21. Paying tribute to famous economists and management experts Peter Drucker, Joseph Schumpeter, Ronald Coase, Adam Smith, Clayton Christensen, and Gary Hamel, the author argues that corporations must fundamentally change if they expect to succeed in the 21st century. How must they change? "The new model will have to be more like the marketplace." Sound familiar?

The main thrust of the article is that corporations have become too bureaucratic. It's not enough, however, to wage war on entrenched corporate bureaucracies. No, a more fundamental change needs to occur: "the new model will have to instill in workers the kind of drive and creativity and innovative spirit more commonly found among entrepreneurs."

So, does this fundamental change really imply the end of management? It does if you buy the author's contention that "corporations are bureaucracies and managers are bureaucrats." But if you redefine managers as venture capitalists, who place bets with corporate resources and focus on "creating structures that motivate and inspire workers" while also developing new mechanisms of information gathering and moving decision-making to the right level of the organization - what do you have then? That's not the end of management, that's the beginning of a new management philosophy. 

The article is excerpted from a new book, The Wall Street Journal Essential Guide to Management. It just might be worth reading.

Thanks to Chris for his contribution. If you'd like to submit a guest post for potential publication on this blog, please email drafts to Ann at ann.zerkle (at) cgkfoundation.org.

Comments

[Andy Gillette]

Hamel's The Future of Management is a great read on this topic. He begins by pointing out the fundamental changes that have happened in the last 50 years of the world: the increased tempo, technological upheavals, increasingly connected markets across the globe, etc. BUT, unlike in these other areas, "management" has hardly evolved at all--at least, not nearly as fast as other changes.