in the 1960s; now everyone speaks of intangible assets, knowledge work and the
knowledge society. Drucker did not always have such near-prophetic accuracy
(Drucker 2004, p. 9); he simply thought in larger contexts, which was his unique
strength.
Drucker once described himself as a “social ecologist,” as he analyzed manage-
ment and leadership disciplines. He included not only the company and its stake-
holders, but also the social context and historical aspects in his analysis.
Drucker blurred the boundaries between two cultures, the arts on the one hand
and the natural sciences on the other, providing management as both an art and a
science. He stressed both the technical as well as the humanistic side of manage-
ment, as management was in his eyes both a profession and a calling. And Drucker
also predicted that management would increasingly develop in the direction of
the “human sciences.” Today I would put it as follows: leadership is relationship
management.
2.1.1.1 What Is Management?
Drucker stated that in the history of mankind, few functions have become as widely
and quickly accepted as that of management. In less than 150 years, styles of mana-
gement have completely changed the social and economic structures of industrialized
countries. In more recent years, management has had less to do with the super-
vision of largely unskilled staff and more with that of “a community of extremely
knowledgeable workers” (Drucker 2004, p. 20). The development of management
has transformed knowledge from a social decoration and luxury into economical
capital.
The fundamental function of management remains unchanged: enabling people
to reach a common achievement through common values, goals and structures, and
through further training to allow them to respond to changes. I feel that, for three
reasons, this one of the best definitions of leadership:
First of all, managers must base their decisions on values. Secondly, leaders will
always be developers of personnel. And thirdly, they must constantly direct pro-
cesses of change.
In other publications, Drucker stressed that the major task of managers is to
produce results that, because they are unspectacular, fade into oblivion. “The
justification for the existence of the management lies in the organization’s results”
(Drucker 2004, p. 120). These results are outside of the company, in the business
world with the customers and competitors. The only purpose of an enterprise is to
find a customer who wants to purchase its goods or services. In the long run, the
customer defines the activities of the enterprise, and at the same time its leadership.
Therefore the profitability of an enterprise is only one factor, not the entire purpose,
and focusing too much on profitability limits the activities of the enterprise. This is
an important clarification in the age of shortsighted shareholder pursuits of strictly
monetary gain.
2.1 The Craft of Leadership 19