2.1 The Craft of Leadership
Good leadership depends on the leader having learned and mastered their craft.This section involves a brief review of the traditional and outdated leadership
methods at the workplace. In the beginning, the mechanistic age defined operations
and culture within industries and organizations. The goal was to operate as smoothly
and efficiently as possible, with workers’ roles being strictly like those of machines.
At about this time, beginning in the 1880s and lasting through the early 1900s,
Frederick W. Taylor developed the theory of scientific management (see Taylor
1913), which was briefly influential in methods of operations within industries (see
Taylor 1913). Work activities were analyzed and divided into individual tasks,
which were easily learned and executed, in order to promote efficiency. As Taylor
stated, “One works smarter instead of harder.”
Other pioneers of management theories and practice include Thomas Watson of
IBM, Robert E. Wood of Sears, and George Elton Mayo of the Harvard Business
School.
In addition, Henri Fayol was instrumental in the development of administrative
practices and defined five essential duties of managers: planning, organizing, inst-
ructing, coordinating and controlling operations (see Fayol 1916). Likewise, Max
Weber was pioneering in regards to examining bureaucratic aspects of office duties
and hierarchy (see Weber 1972). In modern management models the responsi-
bilities are typically classified more precisely into six components: analysis of the
initial situation, formulation of goals, definition of measures, allocation of funds,
execution (implementation), and evaluation of results. Managers’ duties tend to be
divided into the categories of supervision, planning, decision-making and task
delegation (see Thommen and Achleitner 2001, p. 834; R€uhli 1996).
2.1.1 The Old School of Modern Management
The most important and visionary management theoretician was the late Peter
F. Drucker. Most of today’s discussions and practices concerning management
and leadership incorporate his work. In the following I would like to present why
I believe that Drucker provided a pool of valuable knowledge, especially for today’s
managers. To this end I will draw on several works by him that first appeared in the
1940s and have since been reprinted time and again – a sign of their timeliness and
their considerable value (see summary of Drucker 2004 – the individual books can
be found in the references).
Three examples suffice: in the 1940s Drucker wrote on the legitimacy of
management – today everyone talks about “Corporate Governance.” In the 1950s
he wrote on leading with goals; “Management by Objectives” has long since been
recognized as an important instrument. And he coined the term “knowledge workers”
18 2 Occupation or Calling: What Makes for Good Leadership?