Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author. He is regarded as the founder of the modern management as a discipline.

Early Life and Education

Drucker was born in 1909 in Vienna into a family of the intellectuals. His father was a lawyer and the family was active in the cultural life.

He studied at the University of Hamburg and took his doctorate in law at the University of Frankfurt in 1931.

He worked as a journalist and a banker in Germany and then in London. He emigrated to the United States in 1937.

The Founding of the Management Discipline

Drucker published his first book, The End of Economic Man, in 1939. He studied the rise of the totalitarianism and the failure of the economic order.

He studied the management of the company General Motors in the 1940s. The study became the book The Concept of the Corporation.

The book was the first systematic study of the management of the modern corporation. It established the management as a field of the study.

He developed the concept of the management by objectives. The theory holds that the managers should set the goals and the employees should be measured by the results.

The Later Career and the Writing

Drucker taught at the Bennington College and the New York University. He became the professor of the management at the Claremont Graduate University.

He wrote more than thirty books on the management and the society. The works include The Effective Executive and The Practice of Management.

He predicted the rise of the knowledge economy and the knowledge worker. The concepts became the foundation of the modern management.

He was the consultant to the large corporations and the governments. He advised the executives of the companies throughout the world.

The Legacy

Drucker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. He was the first person to receive the award for the management.

The Drucker Institute and the Drucker School of Management are named in his honour. The institutions promote the study of the management.

He died in 2005 in Claremont, California. He was one of the most influential of the management thinkers of the twentieth century.

His work is regarded as the foundation of the modern management. The concepts that he developed remain central to the study and the practice.

The Concept of the Corporation

Drucker studied the management of the General Motors in the 1940s. The study became the book The Concept of the Corporation.

The book was the first systematic study of the modern corporation. It established the management as a field of the study.

He studied the decentralisation and the organisation of the company.

The Management by Objectives

Drucker developed the concept of the management by objectives. The theory holds that the managers should set the goals.

The employees should be measured by the results. The concept became a foundation of the modern management.

The theory was popularised in the book The Practice of Management.

The Knowledge Economy

Drucker predicted the rise of the knowledge economy. He coined the term knowledge worker.

He argued that the knowledge would become the central resource of the economy. The prediction anticipated the development of the information age.

The concepts became the foundation of the modern management.

The Books

Drucker wrote more than thirty books on the management and the society. The works include The Effective Executive.

He wrote on the politics and the economics and the technology. The works reflect the range of his interests.

He was a prolific writer and a gifted teacher.

The Teaching

Drucker taught at the Bennington College and the New York University. He became the professor of the management at the Claremont Graduate University.

He trained a generation of the managers and the executives. He was a popular lecturer and a consultant.

The Drucker School of Management is named in his honour.

The Legacy

Drucker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. He was the first person to receive the award for the management.

He was one of the most influential of the management thinkers. The concepts that he developed remain central to the study.

He died in 2005 in Claremont, California.

The Personal Life

Drucker married Doris Schmitz in 1934 and the couple had four children. The marriage lasted for more than seventy years.

He was a cultured man with the interest in the Japanese art. He taught and wrote until the end of his life.

He died in 2005 and was remembered as the founder of the modern management.

See also

• Management
• Knowledge worker
• Management by objectives
• Corporation