Management in Turbulent Times

Author: (USA) Peter Drucker / Jiang Wenbo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features:
The structure, composition, and qualifications of top management will become the focus of attention. While completing its own restructuring, top management must also continuously focus on environmental turbulence, the formation of the global economy, the emergence of employee societies, and the role of the enterprise in political processes, political concepts, and social policies.
Middle management will have to learn to collaborate with those they cannot directly control, engage in cross-border work, establish, maintain, and operate organizational systems, and take on more work traditionally associated with top management.
Frontline supervisors must become true leaders, becoming "assistants," "supporters," and "mentors."
This book focuses on action, preparedness, and opportunity—it addresses what managers can do, should do, and must do. Regarding the future period, the only certainty is that it will be a turbulent time. In turbulent times, the primary task of management is to ensure the organization's resilience, to ensure the firmness and stability of the organizational structure, and to ensure the organization's ability to withstand sudden shocks, adapt to sudden changes, and fully leverage new opportunities.
This book deals with preparedness—only with such a strategy can we leverage rapid changes, transform the threat of change into opportunity, and thus achieve effective and fruitful action, making contributions to society, the economy, and individuals.
This book explores new realities. However, it is concerned with action rather than understanding, and with decisions rather than analysis. It is not a "philosophical" book, nor does it aim to explore "where we are headed." It focuses on pragmatism, providing guidance on what decision-makers in the public or private management sectors should do.