Drucker

January 2005 i

DRUCKER’S

MbO

His primary sources and contributions to

management in his book

The Practice of Management,

following the development of his ideas in

his first four books

PETER STARBUCK

January 2005 ii

Research For The Award Of A Doctor of Philosophy Degree

To

The Open University Business School

The Open University

Walton Hall

MILTON KEYNES

Buckinghamshire

MK7 6AA

OU Ref: R 520 1357

THIS IS VOLUME 2 IN A SERIES OF 3

Peter Starbuck FRICS, FCIOB, FCMI, PhD OSWESTRY

Shropshire

E-mail: [email protected]

Supervisors: Emeritus Professor of International Management Derek S Pugh ACSS

Emeritus Professor Andrew W J Thomson OBE (For Part) Examiners:

Internal: Dr Geoff R Mallory

External: Professor Ken Starkey, Professor of Management and Organisational Learning Nottingham University Business School

Published by Peter Starbuck Copyright Dr Peter Starbuck 2012

Peter Starbuck asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work ISBN No: 978-1-291-43465-1

January 2005 iii

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This publication is part of ongoing research into Drucker’s work and that of his identified influence. It is the second of three documents, Volume II of a trilogy, with the third volume planned for publication later this year 2013.

Since its preparation in January 2005 further information has emerged regarding Drucker together with extensive research. Consequential is that some further observations, revisions and additions need to be acknowledged.

When Drucker was interviewed as (Pekar Jnr December 1992:17) he is reported to have said that he attended “the first Montessori school in Austria”. Subsequent evidence is that he attended a progressive school which was not Montessori. My revised conclusion is that Drucker was indicating that he attended a progressive school in a manner which would be meaningful to his American audiences. For a further explanation see: Volume No: 1 in Later Reflections in Peter F Drucker His Primary Sources and Contribution to Management in his book The Practice of Management Following the Evolution Of His Ideas In His First Four Books (Starbuck January 2005) Introduction (April 2011).

Referring to Appendix 5 Philosophical Influences That Drucker Considered In

Evolving His Managerial Ideas (VolumeNo: 1) further research has been added. Readers are reminded that the analysis of Drucker’s relationship with his influences covers his ideas which are evident in his first five books. Other scholars will have different opinions This is why this volume has been published – to extend the international debate on

January 2005 iv

Also Acknowledged is that Drucker’s opinion of his influences changed with time.

Volume No: 3 is a repeat of Chapters 1 to 9 together with a chapter on Hoskin Kanri — together with an extension to the Appendices including Profiles of Drucker’s Influences and a Collection of his Citations.

January 2005 v

ABSTRACT

The object of this thesis is to establish what unique contribution Drucker has made to the theory and practice of management. It examines Drucker’s environment and development from his birth in Vienna, in 1909, up to and including the publication of his seminal management book The Practice of Management in 1954. It shows how Drucker evolved his ideas for the new society that was essential to replace the European totalitarian model. It examines the influences that helped Drucker develop his management idea that was based on a Christian Protestant society, which would provide man with freedom, status and function. His experiences and development are tracked as he moved from Austria to work and also study at universities in Germany, before leaving for England after registering his opposition to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1933. His stay in England until 1937 is recorded before his permanent migration to America, where his interest in management ideas were propagated and developed.

This thesis is part of a much larger research project, which has examined the backgrounds and ideas of his influences and the reaction of his biographers and reviewers of his work. The findings of this research have been summarised. This thesis also seeks to determine whether Drucker can meet his own claim in The Practice of Management, that by integrating the functions of management, he made a discipline of it!

A stand-alone timeline Appendix 1 - Peter Ferdinand Drucker Timeline for the Period 1909-1954 has been produced to highlight the consequential events in his life, and to record the management ideas that he identified.

January 2005 vi

This document was submitted for consideration of the examiners for the award of a PhD. It was deferred as they required a Thesis on Drucker’s formative influences. Noted is that this document has been re-edited in September 2011. The text has had minor editing. Appendices 2, 3, 4 and 5 have been updated.

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CONTENTS

Explanatory Note

Abstract

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations Used

Chapter 1

The Thesis and Its Methodology

Introduction 1

Objectives 2

Why a Further Study of Peter F Drucker? 3

What Am I Going to Achieve? 3

The Methodology 4

Primary Material - The Core Books 7

Support Material 9

Problems of Archival Research 9 Advice on Archival and Literature Research 13

January 2005 viii

Chapter 2

Drucker’s Biography

Austria & Germany 1909-1933 – The Formative Years 16 England 1933-1937 – The Interim Period 21 America 1937- Onwards – Developing and Contributing Period 22 Reflecting on Management 1946-1950 29 Taking a Central Position 1950-1953 30

Chapter 3

The Evolution of Drucker’s Ideas in his First Four Books

The End of Economic Man:

The World of Despair 32

The Future of Industrial Man:

Management Ideas Germinating 1943 38

Concept of the Corporation:

Learning about Management in Practice 1944 - 1946 48 Reflecting on Management 1946 - 1950 63

The New Society:

1. ‘Society’ – Previous Ideas 64 Refinements of Previous Ideas 64 2. ‘The Industrial Enterprise’ – Previous Ideas 68 Refinements of Previous Ideas 68

January 2005 ix

Chapter 4

The Practice of Management

Introduction 82

Purpose 85

Method 86

1. Previous Influences and their ideas that are carried forward 87 2. Friends in American Management (1954: Preface viii) 97 3. References within the text 98

4. Case Studies 99

5. Selected Bibliography for further reading 100

6. Post Practice influence 101

Chapter 5

Drucker’s Seven Key Ideas

Drucker’s Seven Key Ideas 103

1. Management Will Be - Management by Objectives and Self Control

(MbO) 105

2. Decentralisation as the Preferred Structure 113 3. The Integration of Productivity by Automation and Profit 115

(i) Automation 119

(ii) Profit 123

4. Managers Must Measure 127

5. The Entrepreneurial Function is: The Purpose of a Business – which is

January 2005 x

(i) Marketing 136

(ii) Innovation 139

6. People are Central to the Organisation 141

(i) Introduction 141

(ii) What does the Enterprise require? 142 (iii) The Worker’s Attitude 144

(iv) The Status Quo 145

(v) The Way Ahead – Supported by Case Studies 149 7. The Manager’s Job is Total Integration 156

(i) The Manager’s Tasks 158 (ii) Managing a Business – Supported by Case Studies 159 (a) The Need for Teamwork 160 (b) What Business Are We In? 161 (c) Delegation by Span of Control and

Span of Managerial Responsibility 165 (iii) Managing Managers 168 (iv) Managing The Worker and Work 179

(v) Time 184

The Impact of what was the Contribution of Drucker’s Seven Key Ideas 185

1. MbO 185

2. Decentralisation 185

3. Integration by Productivity, Automation and Profit 186

4. Managers Must Measure 186

5. Entrepreneurial Function 187 6. People are Central to the Organisation 187 7. The Manager’s Job is Total Integration 188

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The Conclusion of Practice 189

Chapter 6

The Philosophical Influences that were available for

Drucker to use

(iii) Political, Social and Managerial Society 197 (iv) Management Society 198 (v) Economists and Measurement 200

(vi) Management Ideas 201

(vii) People – People are Central to Drucker’s Ideas 203 5. Consequential Corporate Influences 204

Chapter 7

Reactions to Drucker’s Work

Introduction 207

1. Book Reviews of Practice 208

2. The Work of his Biographers 209

(i) Introduction 209

January 2005 xii

(iii) Chapters or Significant Entries on Peter F Drucker 210 3. Treatment of Drucker by Academics 211

Introduction 211

(i) Theses on Drucker’s Work 211

(ii) Academic Reviews 213

Economic Man 213 Future 213 Concept 214 Society 216 Practice 220 Summary 223

4. Reference to Drucker in other writings 225 5. Conclusions to the Reactions of Drucker’s Work 227

Chapter 8

Drucker’s Contribution to Management as a Practice

1. As a Synthesiser? 229

2. As an Originator? 233

3. Did he “make a Discipline of Management?” 238

January 2005 xiii

Chapter 9

Evaluation of this Thesis

1. Personal Reflections on Drucker’s Work 250 2. What is My Contribution? 258

3. What is My Thesis? 260

4. The Arguments and Evidence that Support the Thesis 263

Appendices

1. Peter Ferdinand Drucker Timeline for the Period 1909-1954

2. Bibliography of Peter Ferdinand Drucker’s Primary Literature and of his Significant Biographers (in English)

3. Thesis Bibliography

4. Publications by Peter Starbuck

5. Philosophical Influences that Drucker Considered in Evolving his Management Ideas

January 2005 xiv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Drucker wrote that for management to succeed it always had to be a team effort. This thesis would not have been possible without the assistance of others whom I now readily acknowledge. The credits given in Volume I have not been repeated.

Of those who have helped with the typing, Joan Irwin started with Margarette Pugh and Sue Barton. Antony and Samantha gave a burst of effort during the concluding stages, but Sue Bell has carried the burden since my research became formalised during this thesis and has worked patiently through many re-drafts.

Encouragement and assistance during my earlier preparation came from John Roberts, Stephen Jury, Professor Gerald Bennett, Kate Gilbert and Professor Les Worrall of Wolverhampton University.

Stanley Harris and Bob Norton of the Chartered Management Institute introduced me to Edward Brech, who made contact with the Open University which started my thesis process. Rosemary Geller and Professor David Coleman acted as my referees, the latter giving his expert views on demographics. Dr Bill Cooke of UMIST gave important information on archival research literature.

Valuable advice and time were given by the staff of various libraries, particularly Carole Hunter-Brown and Tim Wales of the Open University, Milton Keynes. In addition to the American Libraries, which are later noted, particular mention must be made of Chicago University Library, New York Public Library, New York University the New York

January 2005 xv

and staff were The British Library - in particular Denis Ready, Graham Cranfield and Judith Harrison. The Newspaper Library and those of London School of Economics, Cambridge University - in particular Barry Eden, Wolverhampton University, Manchester City, Birmingham City and The Chartered Manager’s Institute. Special mention and thanks must be recorded to the Shropshire County Headquarters Library, my Local Branch Library, and in particular to John Oxley and his colleagues at the Reference Section, and Sue Owen at the Shirehall. Sally Halper of the British Library must be acknowledged for her help in getting Volume I published online, as must Piers Cai n of the CMI for the Drudker London Project.

My thanks also goes to The American Embassy Library - Paul Evans in particular, and also to the embassy libraries of France, Germany and Sweden (International Cultural Section). Also included is the Bergen Art Gallery, Norway.

Others who have given general help and assistance are: Lord John Biffen, Reverend David North, Reverend Barry Kinsman, Felix Martin, Jeremy Beadle, Carol Kennedy, Christine Hawksworth, Peter Day of the BBC, Dr Roger Hargroves of Ricoh, Dr Gunther Krase, Alan Johnson, Elwyn Jones, Allen Edwards, The Kaizen Institute and Paul Roberts of Warwick University, The Juran Institute and Professor Bill Starbuck of New York

University. Others are listed in Chapter 1 including the staff of several embassies and their various departments.

Special mention must be made of Annette Parks, who has helped my American research together with Otto Doering III, who provided personal details of his grandfather. While in Britain, Jonathan Hall and Mike Robinson have burdened themselves with proof reading, which has moved my grammar from the primitive to at least the acceptable, and Brian Jones, who has been a permanent help in many ways.

January 2005 xvi

Peter Drucker gave patient encouragement many years’ back when my naïve research was of a personal nature.

Pillars of help that have always encouraged and helped are Richard Donkin, Morgen Witzel and again Dr Edward Brech, who was my sponsor and has been my honorary coach. Of the establishment of the OU, Dr Geoff Mallory and his helpful staff have always been patient, encouraging and friendly while Professor Andrew Thomson for part of my supervision and Professor Derek Pugh for all of my progress set the standard initially. But it is to the ever-available sage, Derek Pugh, whose patience; prompting and advice have made this thesis approach a cohesive whole, while his wife Natalie has always been a patient and welcoming link. To the many others who may have given me assistance and to whom I have inadvertently omitted to give credit – my apologies.

I hope I have not too greatly bored my family and friends, especially my wife, Heather, (who between times told friends that she often believed she was living with Peter Drucker), but still found time to help as a utility player.

Whatever assistance I have received, the interpretation that I have put on the information and the conclusions I have reached are mine, for which I accept responsibility.

January 2005 xvii

ABBREVIATIONS USED

American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT&T

Chief Executive Officer CEO

Chrysler Motors Corporation Chrysler

Crown Zellerbach Corporation Crown Zellerbach Federal Decentralisation Decentralisation

Henry Ford Ford

General Electrical Company (of America) GE General Motors Corporation GM

The Christian God God

Harvard Business Review HBR

Harvard Business School HBS

International Business Machines Corporation IBM

Labour Unions Unions

Management by Objectives and Self-Control MbO Montgomery Ward & Company Wards

Return on Investment ROI

Sears Roebuck & Company Sears Tennessee Valley Authority TVA

The American Cast Iron Pipe Company American Pipe Co The Ford Motor Company (of America) Fords

January 2005 xviii

ABBREVIATIONS FOR DRUCKER’S WORKS:

The End of Economic Man Economic Man

The Future of Industrial Man Future

Concept of the Corporation Concept

The New Society Society

The Practice of Management Practice

January 2005 1

CHAPTER 1

THE THESIS AND ITS METHODOLOGY

This chapter records the cause, the purpose or objectives, range and methods of this work together with the extent of the material examined.

Introduction

This research is the consequence of wanting to make a contribution to help managers improve their performance. It follows my career in management that has spanned commercial, public institutions, and charitable organisations from embryonic stage to international scale, while working both as an employee and a principal. From this range of experience, the external influence that had the most consistently correct advice for management performance in this

writer’s experience was Peter F Drucker. Hence the object of this research is to identify Drucker’s key messages for managers, in the hope that we will be less inclined to keep making the same mistakes with surprising repetition.

Preliminary preparation of this research commenced about ten years ago with nothing more than an aide mémoire of Management: Tasks, Responsibilities and Practices (1974) that I had produced in 1975 as a management prompt. The starting point for this research was identifying and collecting Drucker’s books, until I had a complete library of his works. The task was substantially completed by the mid 1990s. The resulting list is incorporated into Appendix 2 Bibliography of Peter Ferdinand Drucker’s Primary Literature and of his Significant Biographers (in English). In correspondence with Drucker regarding my list of his books he commented, “You have more than I have” (correspondence Drucker/Starbuck October 1995).

January 2005 2

Objectives

This thesis will establish what unique contribution Drucker has made to the practice of

management. The foundation for this research is a detailed analysis of his first five books, which includes what is most frequently acknowledged as his seminal work The Practice of

Management. The other four books are The End of Economic Man (May 1939), The Future of

Industrial Man (1942), Concept of the Corporation (1946) and The New Society (1950). John E

Flaherty, Drucker’s most consequential biographer, wrote that these first five works of Drucker needed to be studied to understand Drucker’s management ideas “The Practice of Management

was a culmination, bringing Drucker’s early thought into a coherent synthesis” (Flaherty

1999:20). I agree with Flaherty, as this was my contention when I commenced my work in 1998. My conclusion has been supported by my research for this thesis. The thesis will also record how Drucker’s personality and ideas developed, what the ideas of his major influences were, and what their contribution was, followed by the reaction to his work. The thesis will be concluded with an assessment of its contribution.

On the face of it, this thesis may appear to be a partial sample of Drucker’s total written output, which is about three and half million words in book form plus a similar amount in academic papers and journalism. However, the content of this section of his work provides an important area of study, because it identifies the foundation and records the evolution of his ideas. The present submission is part of a much larger study, which more fully examines the work of his influences and the work of his biographers and commentators. It enabled an assessment of the market place of ideas that Drucker worked in and whether there was an empirical research to support the occasional “barb” that his work lacked academic rigour.

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Why a further study of Peter F Drucker?

It could be argued that Drucker has already been studied in detail. He has been the subject of a number of individual biographies over a period of thirty years. It is near impossible to find a compendium of management writers or shapers, which excludes Drucker. He has been the subject of eleven identified theses, nine in America and two in Spain. However, no evidence has been unearthed that detailed research has been conducted in the United Kingdom. This leaves an opportunity for original contribution from a British perspective by a practising manager with the advantage of hindsight on the 50th Anniversary of Drucker publishing Practice.

What am I going to achieve?

By analysing Drucker’s ideas and those of his influences, actual or potential, I will identify if he has, as he claimed, made a unique contribution to the practice of management and management ideas by writing Practice. I will attempt to answer the question “Did he invent the discipline of

management in Practice by putting all the tools of management into one kit?” (1986:9). And was

his contribution as a synthesiser, or as an originator of ideas? To qualify as a Drucker influence, they must appear in his text directly or indirectly by identifiable association. However, there are variations in the manner in which he has treated them. The majority are precisely referenced and linked to their ideas. Others are not “close referenced”, but examination of their work establishes what was available to Drucker. It is a matter of conjecture from this material rather than

January 2005 4

The Methodology

The methodology of this thesis is primarily comprehensive qualitative incremental documentary analysis refined by disquisition. It is a practical application of Gestalt’s holistic boundary-less method. This lateral approach has produced material that is more extensive than is traditional. Consequently, a selection of the research has been chosen for this thesis, while the balance is in an unpublished but deposited working paper. However, this relaxation of the normal parameters is necessary for the examination required to be of sufficient rigour. The research is primarily literature based. It is a structured approach to build patterns of the ideas that appeared, and how they evolved. As in any management project, which is what this research is, some of the

recognised management functions are endemic. The objectives have been established. The methodology in a general management project would be termed ‘planning’. The plan of this research has been to identify the core resources needed. These resources are literature records in a traditional written or electronic form, and personal recollections of people interviewed.

The foundation or core researches are Drucker’s books. From these, his management ideas have been identified. Also the “influences” that he records and which have shaped his management ideas have been collated. Appendix 5 - Philosophical Influences that Drucker Considered in Evolving his Managerial Ideas is the work of these influences, and their published works have been studied in their original form (or with foreign works in a translated form). Works by others, who are not overtly referenced as influences, have also been studied to establish whether their contribution to management ideas has similarities with Drucker’s. Because of Drucker’s

declaration that his interest is in people, a bibliographic profile has been compiled of each of his key influences and these are included in Dramatis Personae – The One Hundred and Five

Influences that Drucker Considered for his Management Ideas (Starbuck 2005a) unpublished

January 2005 5

The biographers of Drucker and the significant commentaries on his work have also been studied. These are detailed in Appendix 2 - Bibliography of Peter Ferdinand Drucker’s Primary Literature and of his Significant Biographers (in English). This information is also supported by the work of his reviewers, by interviews, and materials resulting from debates with a range of interested people. This also included a face to face interview with Erwin Wilson, the son of Charles Erwin Wilson (1890-1961), in December 2002, regarding his father’s role as the president of GM, during the period that Drucker wrote Concept. Appendix 1 - Peter Ferdinand

Drucker’s Timeline For the Period 1909 – 1954 is produced as a stand-alone document, as a convenient record of the significant events in his life and of the key management ideas that he identified. This, to my knowledge, is the first time that a Timeline of Drucker has been attempted.

Where the written evidence has not been in a sufficiently comprehensive form to allow conclusions to be fully drawn, then more expert opinions have been sought and/or further

literature research has been included. Although the approach has been structured, it has not been an inflexible grid, as many random diversions have been productive and added to the objective.

Much of the work has been predictable and sequential in locating book references or the work of the influences, all through indices or databases initially. It has been achieved by disquisition with specialist such as librarians, academics or practitioners of various fields and the network of contacts and friends whose help I have called upon to assist with problems that could not be regarded as routine. An example is the genealogical expert who helped me to locate Drucker’s home in London via his Certificate of Marriage.

The present writer acknowledges that research for this thesis is confined to works in the English language, except for the works of Drucker’s early influences - Frederich Julius Stahl (1802-1861) and Walther Rathenau (1867-1912).

January 2005 6

Where Drucker’s influences occur in the general text they are underlined for convenience of identification. This practice has not been followed in quotations or references. The first mention of the influences will include their full names. Thereafter only surnames will be used excepting Richard Warren Sears (1863-1914) to differentiate him from Sears Roebuck & Company and the husband and wife team of Frank Bunker Gilbreth (1868-1926) and Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972), which is necessary in order to differentiate between them. Also, where research has identified ideas from his influences that he did not record, they have been bracketed thus { }. Where Drucker is setting down specific rules for performance, they have been underlined as ____________.

With one or two exceptions, including Lillian Gilbreth and Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933), management in this era and the preceding era was male dominated, as confirmed by Drucker’s first reference to women “Such a man (or woman) must make decision” (1966:6). In this thesis, people are referred to as neuter or in male terms, but the term embraces both sexes.

The Harvard Standard reference system has been used for general references. However, where Drucker references the title of the book or paper it has then been included narratively in this thesis, because the book title is fundamental in identifying the work topic or range of his writing. Other researchers have noted that Harvard standard referencing is not always compatible with this type of research.

Subsequently, my research has been targeted on its core objectives. During my studies over the past seven years, I have examined several thousand books, papers and articles, making records as necessary. The aim has been to develop a better focus and context for Drucker’s management work. Much of the material has been about management, but others have followed his holistic range of wider ideas.

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Primary Material - The Core Books

Economic Man analyses the situation in Europe and concentrates on the societies in totalitarian

collapse. It is pessimistic. By contrast, Future is optimistic as Drucker starts to identify the type of society that he personally wants to be a part of. It is a Christian-based free society, giving man freedom, status and function, which are the needs that he identified in Economic Man. Having identified a workable model for society, Drucker moves on and commences, in Concept, to identify management ideas more specifically and to develop his social ideas. Central to these social ideas was the creation of an “autonomous self-governing plant community” to correct or complete “industrial man’s society” that had not evolved from when it was “economic man’s

society”. Drucker believed that without a new workable society centred on the Corporation,

(which is a Social Organisation, not a mechanical organisation), society could not function to its full potential. Drucker’s warning was that if there were no constructive developments in society, the situation would become more acute and unstable.

Concept is the first study of the Corporation as a social organisation, and is centred upon Alfred

Pritchard Sloan Jnr’s (1875-1966) General Motors Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer. Drucker identifies GM as the foundation for his “new industrial man’s society”. Drucker

describes what he terms ‘GM’s Federal Decentralised structure’, which later becomes generically known as Decentralisation. For Drucker, Decentralisation is the recommended corporate model, although there was a need to further develop its social concepts. Drucker’s ideas have developed considerably from Economic Man and Future. With his ideas in Concept, he now had a

foundation for his task. In Society, Drucker collects and refines his ideas in general, but his emphasis is on society rather than the needs of the Corporations. In Practice, he collects and synthesises the essential working practices and other elements needed for the successful management of business enterprises. Amongst this is his assessment of what is an acceptable market based society. It is based upon Joseph Aloisius Julius Schumpeter’s (1883-1950) concept

January 2005 8

of a pluralist free market economy, which rejects both laissez-faire economics and central planning. However Drucker accepts that some projects can be undertaken satisfactorily only by governments, such as the mammoth Tennessee Valley Authority project, which received a passing reference in Society (1950:9). TVA is examined in Drucker’s later work, Management: Tasks,

Responsibilities and Practices (1974). Although it is outside the general time frame of this

research, it is included in this thesis because it is Drucker’s first examination of the management of a non-profit making organisation and also because it indicates one of the directions of

Drucker’s later important work.

Drucker’s position in Practice is that management is business management, with the military, Church, and Government “having something similar”. Later in his career, in the 1990s Drucker would contribute to management thinking in the other organisations of society such as the non-profit sector, and would identify the non-non-profit charity area as the place where managers could then get the most satisfaction in their work. His commitment to this area is endorsed by his pro

bono work for charities in general, and the formation of the visible ‘[The] Peter F Drucker Foundation for Non-Profit Management’, in America and Canada.

Further works of Drucker’s which fall outside the period of this research are referred to where they record significant changes in Drucker’s management thinking, which would result in the wrong conclusion being drawn if omitted from this text. A significant example is that Drucker’s contention when he wrote Practice, which was shared by Douglas Murray McGregor (1906-1964), was that there was only one right way to manage people. Later Drucker admitted that Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970) in his book Eupsychian Management (1965), {Eupsychian is a Maslow invented word meaning “moving toward psychological health”} proved both himself and McGregor wrong, and that Maslow was right in thinking that people were so significantly different that they could not all be managed in the same manner (Ibid: 1965, and Drucker

January 2005 9

1974:233). This was a conclusion that George Elton Mayo (1880-1949) had reached in his book

The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilisation (1933).

Support Material

This is made up of the several hundred papers and books that Drucker refers to, and the works examined of his influences.

Problems of Archival Research

Problems worth recording include a search for Drucker’s Birth Certificate, which produced a reply from Dr Waltraud Stangl of the Evangelisiche Kirche in Vienna, Austria. Only family relations can obtain birth and death details in accordance with Section 41 in conjunction with Section 37 of the Austrian Law on Births and Deaths. Research for a PhD thesis is not accepted as a legal interest. It was suggested that the records could be accessed after the person was dead and when the event was one hundred years old. My genealogist researcher commented that Austria had one of the most restricted personnel record systems in Europe, whereas the British system is open access. His concern was that the pattern of change was for Britain to move in line with the Austrian protocol under European Union regulation.

It is worth recording a red herring that was inadvertently set for the Shropshire County Reference Library. Practice contains an error regarding Xenophon (431BC – 354 BC). It is described as

Kyropaedia of Xenophon (1954:156). It should read Kyropaedia of Xenophon, however the use

of “of” is now regarded as old-fashioned. The accepted British usage is Cyropaedia by

January 2005 10

then phoned The British Library in London where one of their Classics experts straightened the record.

The foregoing examples confirm the advantage of qualitative research by disquisition as being the method of a literature of archival research. Although quantitative analysis has been used where appropriate to collate data in the Appendices and Table, it has also been used in connection with the ISI Citation Index and various library databases.

The advantages of using Qualitative Analysis for this type of research are shown in the examination of material identified, where an open-minded attitude was essential to prevent a prejudicial outcome of the development of a hidden agenda, which can be the danger with closed questions. The open enquiry has enabled experts such as librarians, together with other

researchers, to share their expertise and knowledge, and to make important contributions during disquisition. An example of their knowledge is in explaining the construction of the ISI Citation

Index, which commenced in 1980. Only material from this date forward is included. What this

means is that references to Practice published between 1954 and 1979 are not all the references but only references published from 1980 or onwards. This is not obvious to an inexperienced researcher and became apparent only during discussion. Also, The British Library search system is separated into pre and post 1975; this appears obvious until discussion reveals that books written before 1975, but acquired after 1975, are catalogued in the post-1975 collection.

Much of the material examined in the research itself is not indexed. It has been painstaking detective work, as one piece of information has often provided a lead to another piece of

sometimes important or sometimes irrelevant information. Some of the standard indices such as

Copac were not as revealing as was predicted by various advisors. The fact that the Open

University Library does not subscribe to the £23,000 per annum Biography and Genealogy

January 2005 11

University. Biography and Genealogy is an important survey of information, but it is not as complete as indicated in its introduction, as some inclusions refer only to other obscure American material that is not readily available, or where available the information contained was

incomplete. The American biographical indices or references used with success were Who ’s

Who in America and Who was Who in America, The New York Times Obituary Index, The

Book Review Digest and The American Social Services Death Index.

Of the libraries used, The British Library and The British Newspaper Library required the most persistence, because the service provided varied, depending on which staff member was

approached. ‘No’ can become ‘Yes’ after the fourth or fifth enquiry. The library of the London School of Economics and Political Science has unique and exceptional material, which can be accessed providing you can gain admission. The belief of The British Library in St Pancras that their reader cards give access to the London School of Economics Library is not true; the London School of Economics’ own pass is required. However, once this has been obtained briefcases can be taken in and out without being searched, whereas at The British Library only essentials for the research can be taken into their libraries in transparent bags. This is an illustration of libraries’ idiosyncrasies. The Chartered Management Institute’s Library at Corby is also very helpful to its members and their material was essential to this research, as was the Open University Library at Milton Keynes. Cambridge University also provided important material, while my own

Shropshire County Library Services obtained much material on loan, including unique material from American Libraries.

One of the American Libraries at Kansas University lent one of the few copies in the world of Rathenau’s English translation of Die neue Wirtshaft(The New Economy) (1918). The

universities of Harvard, Yale, Rochester, New York and RIT in Illinois have been most helpful in providing materials, as was the Nevada State University during a visit. Experience with the Library of Congress in Washington confirms that they are best equipped for responses via the

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Internet, rather than personally. Of the Embassies contacted in London, the American responded with bibliographical details in general, The Swedish Embassy with Sune Carlson (1909-1999), The French Embassy in part with Rolf Nordling (1893-1974) while The German Embassy were co-operative, but became defensive when asked whether the Nazis confiscated Rathenau’s family assets.

The essentiality of working from original material is illustrated by the danger of using updated editions of books rather than those referenced. Two examples are given. The first example is Maslow’s book Eupsychian Management (1965). In its original form, the book is difficult to access. An update entitled Maslow on Management (1998 – Maslow with Stephens & Heil) purports to be the same book, but with explanation notes. It isn’t. Two important sections have been edited out of the text. One is a condemnation of homosexuality that established Maslow’s position as a homophobe (Maslow 1965:12). Another is a reference to a study of adolescent “Negroes” in Cleveland, Ohio (Ibid 1965:167). These omissions may not have a direct bearing on the research in hand, but they are a warning of the danger of secondary evidence, and how editing can distort. What is important is that it limits the understanding of Maslow’s work, and it

contracts the range of ideas he considered. The second example is Frederick Winslow Taylor’s (1856-1915) Scientific Management 1911, which is one of the standard classic management books. It is no longer in print and not too readily available on the second-hand book market. However, The Principles of Scientific Management by Taylor copyright 1911, published in 1967 by Norton Library, is available. After several interviews regarding Scientific Management it became obvious to me that my counterparts and I were not talking about the same things. The reason was that the original Scientific Management contains three of Taylor’s works: Shop

Management, The Principles of Scientific Management and his Testimony before the Special

House Committee. The 1967 Norton edition of Taylor’s work is only the middle volume of his

original work, but the impression given, is that it is a reproduction of the entire original 1911 edition. See particular entry in Appendix 3 Thesis Bibliography.

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It is worth recording that a common library practice which handicaps research is the practice of removing dust covers from books. For literature researches, in particular, and for research in general, it removes important information from the dust cover which invariably is not repeated in the text of the book. However, the paper record when kept is retainable, which occasionally is not the case with web-site indices, which may not yield the same response for identical entry

procedures.

Advice on Archival and Literature Research

Some advice on archival and literary research exists, such as Archival Strategies and

Technologies (Hill 1993). The first action recommended is to set a target project. The second is

to build around that target by research. If the person is prominent, then this is relatively easy. However, if the person is obscure, it may require researching other more prominent

contemporaries or contributors in the target’s field of activity. Fortunately, Drucker was

prominent and established which made him a direct rather than indirect target. Michael R Hill’s next recommendation is to consult appropriate indices. Of those recommended, a small number are not available in the UK. Of those available, many had been used, together with some that Hill does not record. However, in acknowledgement to Hill (29 & 30), the following were examined at The British Library on his suggestion. [The] Combined Retrospective Index Set to Journals in

Sociology 1895-1974, in which there is one reference to Drucker’s paper Employee Society

(1952). Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals 1886-1972, which records the academic reception to Drucker’s work. Biography and Genealogy Master

Index (microfiche) — although an important index, it did not help with my outstanding

requirements regarding Drucker’s influences. Notable Names in American History 1973 was not relevant to my research, as the index lists American presidents, politicians and principal public servants etc. In International Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences (25 Vols

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2001) — Drucker’s books received nine references in the text in this highly selective and

authoritative encyclopaedia.

Hill has anticipated the methods that I have used. Our experiences have a commonality and I endorse his advice. Hill advises that the researcher should not expect to find all the information in one location. Preparation is recommended as essential before visiting archives, as access

requirements vary from establishment to establishment. Hill says that researchers should also be prepared for collections to be indexed idiosyncratically, and that the ability of the staff not only varies from one organisation to another, but also within the organisation. Hill records that the researcher should always remember that records may be for a purpose of influence, and not always as a factual record. Hill is again correct, but he does not highlight that we may all be

unintentionally ‘duped’, because impartiality if intended is not always possible, as history can be influenced according to which side of the fence the view is taken from. An example is an

organisation’s history, which is almost always produced at the management’s request. Accurately reflecting the views of the workforce is always going to be difficult. Of the research methods for archival research, for Hill, quantitative research is a contributor but open question qualitative research is generally the most productive method. The reason is that it aids new discoveries and often provides further leads. However, all research methods must always be regarded as

subsidiary to the object of the research, which is to provide the best research result. Hill’s emphasis is on documentary material. It is worth recording that ‘on-line’ research will always have deficiencies because of the sheer volume of information available. This is a point made by an American friend who is attempting to find final biographical details on the last five of

Drucker’s most obscure influences (e-mail Annette Parks/Starbuck 19.11.03).

Support of open question qualitative research comes from Frank Heller (1920-2007) of the Tavistock Institute in his chapter in the Festschrift to Professor Derek Salman Pugh: “The Time

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in Honour of Derek S Pugh edited by Timothy Clark (1997:297-298). Heller regards one of the

reasons for the success of the Pugh-led Aston Studies as the “use of carefully validated interview

schedule rather than the more popular and less reliable distributed questionnaire”. Of historical

research, which this project basically is, Gilbert Keith (G K) Chesterton (1874-1936) made a criticism of writers on modern history of England, of starting at the second half and ignoring the first (Chesterton 1923:8). This criticism has been heeded in this composition.

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CHAPTER 2

DRUCKER’S BIOGRAPHY

Drucker’s life is being divided into three periods: his formative years in Austria and Germany, an interim period in England, and his developing and contributing period in the United States of America.

Austria and Germany 1909-1933 – The Formative Years

Peter Georg Ferdinand Drucker was born November 19th 1909 in Vienna. He was the elder of two sons, the other being Gerhart Agustin, who was born in August 1911, and who eventually became a medical doctor. His father Adolph Bertram (1875-167), who had a doctorate, was a prominent lawyer, the civil servant head of the Austrian Ministry of Commerce, and he eventually he became the chairman of a major Austrian bank. Drucker records that his mother Caroline attended

lectures by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). The household led an affluent existence at Kaasgraben in the prosperous Döbling suburb of Vienna, with a flow of visitors and guests who were

politicians, academics or connected with the arts.

Regular guests included the economists Frederich August von Hayek (1899-1992), Lugwig von Mises (1881-1973), and Joseph Alois Julius Schumpeter (1883-1950), a one time Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Austrian Government who was a colleague of Adolph at that time in the Austrian Treasury. Later Drucker would describe his father’s lasting friendship with Schumpeter when they all lived in America. Schumpeter was one of the firsts of Drucker’s major external influences.

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However, the first recorded influences outside the household were his junior schoolteachers. He was taught objective examination and to concentrate on his strengths (See Volume I). Towards the middle of 1917 life in Austria was changing for all. Austria was on the losing side of World War I. By the winter of 1919-1920 only special food relief arranged by the Americans and British saved the children of Vienna from starvation. By 1922 inflation had made everyone poor; the Austrian Krone had reputedly fallen by 75,000 times in the preceding four years. His junior schooling was at “the first Montessori school in Austria, in the home of a family friend” (Pekar Jnr Dec 1992 – see Volume I). Of his formal senior schooling Drucker did not regard his performance as distinguished, being bored with classical grammar at the classics-based Döbling Vienna Gymnasium. His intellectual development was outside school by attending several Viennese intellectual salons, where he was treated as an adult. He had to learn how to research and have his work critically examined in the company of people such as Thomas Mann (1875-1955). These experiences together with the influence of the Austrian School, of economists, social thinkers and philosophers, all added to his development together with Max Wertheimer (1880-1943) who evolved the Gestalt holistic philosophy, which influenced Drucker’s approach in all of his work.

In 1927, aged seventeen, he asked his father to find him “something in business”. His father found him an apprenticeship as “a bored trainee at an export house in Hamburg, employed mainly in

copying invoices for shipments of padlocks to India and East Africa. …. I was, indeed, most unlikely to become a “commercial success”” (1992:425). Despite this full-time job he enrolled in

the Law Faculty at Hamburg University. He regarded himself as a part-time student as he could not attend the daytime lectures. The part-time study method became his recommended method of learning.

While in Hamburg, Drucker had his first work published. It was a thesis on the role of the

Panama Canal on world trade. It was published in a German economic quarterly before Christmas 1927. It had been written as part of his entrance examination for Hamburg University (1979:123).

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On his return to Vienna for Christmas 1927 from Hamburg he met Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) at an editorial conference. Polanyi would later become a colleague of Drucker’s in America at

Bennington College in the 1940s.

Of the fifteen months that he lived in Hamburg, his weekday evenings were spent in the library. He said “I read and read and read everything in German, English and French.”(Beatty 1998:11) He was a regular attendee at the Hamburg Opera. While watching a performance of Guiseppe Fortunio Francesco Verdi’s (1813-1901) ‘Falstaff’, Drucker learnt that this last opera had been written when he was eighty, which reflected Verdi’s philosophy, which was “All my life as a

musician I have strived for perfection. It always eluded me. I surely have an obligation to make one more try.”(Ibid 1998:11) Verdi’s attitude was a further major influence on Drucker. The

actions of Verdi made an indelible impression on Drucker, who resolved that he would use Verdi’s principles as a life model, trying for perfection and not giving up in advanced age.

While in Hamburg Drucker had a spiritual experience that had a fundamental affect on his life. Reading Søren Aabye Kierkegaard’s (1813-1855) 1843 book Syrgt og Bievem (Fear and

Trembling) changed “The Lutheran Protestantism of my childhood” as he “… had found a new, a

crucial, an existential dimension” (1993:425). This shaped Drucker’s conviction on integrity and

morality in business reinforced his practice of the Protestant work ethic and the need for managers to have an ecumenical dimension to their lives.

From Hamburg, Drucker moved to Frankfurt as a securities analyst at an old merchant bank that had been taken over by a Wall Street brokerage business. He continued with his career as a writer. An article on why the New York stock market would continue to prosper was “Published in

September 1929 issue…. Just weeks later, in October, the market crashed.” Drucker says that

“Fortunately, there is no copy of the Journal left.” (Beatty 1998:12) Later Drucker gives an alternative version, that he was the researcher for a “brilliant book” by his ‘boss’, the firm’s

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economist. Two days after publication the New York Crash occurred. The book entitled

“Investment” “disappeared without a trace and a few days later so did my job” (2002:ix). Later Drucker would write that this was the last financial prediction that he ever made. He was then appointed as a financial writer on Frankfurt’s largest circulation paper the Frankfurter General

Anzeiger, where the editor insisted that trainees attended university, which was compatible with

Drucker’s plan, as he had transferred his studies from Hamburg University to Frankfurt

University. Drucker also attended Bonn University for Schumpeter’s lectures. In the same year, 1929, he recorded that he interviewed Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). Within two years he became a senior editor of the paper for foreign and economic news, politics and also wrote the ‘women’s section’ during the regular editor’s absence; while in Frankfurt he joined the “Volkeskonservative

Union” – “People Conservatives”, becoming the youth leader. The object was to recruit

prominent youth members who were opposed to the Nazis. The project was not successful.

Of Frankfurt University with its complement of foremost scholars, Drucker recalled that one part of the general syllabus that was to provide a lasting influence and “the most general education I

ever had…” (Beatty 1998:14). It was the subject of admiralty law. Drucker wrote that while, on

the face of it, it was a narrow subject, the lecturer presented it as “a microcosm of Western

History, society, technology, legal thought and economy.” (Ibid 1998:14) Later Drucker wrote

that he used it as a template to teach management. (Ibid 1998:14) Drucker also noted that while at university he added statistics to his subjects. In 1931 at the age of twenty-two his thesis on

International and Public Law was completed. With the completion of his doctorate, a promising career was developing. Although Drucker became eligible to be appointed “Dozent” –a lecturer at the university, which he did, the appointment was never confirmed. An offer to become a writer in the Nazi Ministry of Information, Drucker met with a rejection.

On 26 April 1933 JCB Mohr who were described as Germany’s most famous publishers, produced as Number 100 in a series of monographs, Drucker’s thirty-two page Fr. J Stahl; Konservative

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Staatslehre & Geschichtliche Entwiclung Motrtueringan (Fr. J Stahl; Conservative Philosophy

of the State and Historical Continuity) (http://3-ensign.at/drucker/stahlf.html). Friedrich Julius

Stahl (1802-1861), a German Jew by birth, became the chief spokesman for the Protestant Orthodoxy. After a spiritual experience, Stahl converted to Christianity at the age of seventeen. He believed that even in periods of political and economic change, Conservatism based upon the overriding Protestant principles should continue with a place for a constitutional monarch. This was Stahl’s “throne and altar”. Stahl’s reasoning was that the monarch made evolution possible and revolution unnecessary. For Stahl People should obey the law and act responsibly and also respect the law and the monarch. In return the monarch and the government would reciprocate and uphold freedom rather than the State becoming the “Total State”. Drucker’s work has remained

locus classicus on an important but difficult to understand German philosopher. Stahl, in

proposing a world based upon Protestantism that was capable of change without destabilising political institutions was a formative influence on Drucker. This is attested by Freyberg who, claiming to be Drucker’s oldest friend, wrote that Stahl “foreshadowed his entire subsequent

development” (Freyberg in Bonaparte & Flaherty 1970:18). Stahl’s “continuity and change”

would become in Drucker’s work ‘discontinuities’, where the world could change and not fall apart, which allowed for the replacement of the Cartesian world where everything had a place. Although not mentioned by Freyberg Stahl’s conversion to Christianity and Drucker’s

confirmation as a Christian believer at similar ages is relevant because of the permanent influence on their subsequent work. The monograph was Drucker’s rejection of Nazi ideas. Drucker said that he wanted to record that he cared. It was also his farewell message to the Nazis as he left Germany for Vienna shortly after it was published to stay with his parents at their house at Kaasgraben 10. The monograph was banned, and burnt for two reasons: for what Drucker had written and because of Stahl’s Jewish birth. Elon records “In May book burning took place in

every German University towns.” The books were by Jews, “traitors and degenerates” (Elon

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Drucker left a European mainland that had disintegrated economically and was in political turmoil. He had experienced the defeat of his own country in war, chronic food shortages and hyperinflation. Many of the values that had been his anticipated inheritance at birth had been swept away. What remained were his family influences, and the outside influences of his two junior schoolteachers, Kierkegaard, Stahl, and Schumpeter whose fundamental influence would become manifest later. From them he had learnt application, independence and principles. They also gave him a foundation for his ethics, his politics, his constitutional aims, his economic, and his managerial ideas. Earliest amongst his management influences was Rathenau the prominent German major industrialist, academic, diplomat, politician, manager and social thinker as confirmed later (1939:60, 110, 118 & 246). Rathenau’s prominence as a national figure is confirmed in Amos Elon’s book The Pity Of It All: A Portrait of Jews in German 1743-1933 (2002). Drucker was now an accomplished journalist having reported many major events

including the developments that followed the Conference of Versailles. Also his academic career was now well founded.

England 1933 – 1937 – The Interim Period

By July 1933 Drucker was in London and stayed for three years. In this period he developed a successful career in corporate banking and attended John Maynard Keynes’ (1883-1946) lectures at Kings College, Cambridge University. In a later reflection Drucker wrote that he could have been an economist but he realised that they were only interested in inanimates as commodities, trade and finance, whereas his interest was in people. Of his career and personal life, he was introduced to Japanese art and subsequently developed into an expert on 14th –19thc Japanese painting, on which he gave advice and lectured at university. Drucker, at twenty-seven years of age, married twenty-five year old Doris Schmitz. She had attended lectures by her husband-to-be, when he was a part- time lecturer at Frankfurt University. Their certificate of marriage records that the ceremony took place at Hampstead Registry Office, London, on January 16, 1937.

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Drucker’s name is recorded as Peter Georg, and Doris is recorded as being from Mainz, Germany. Her father is described as a retired civil servant. Later, as Doris developed her career she is

described as a physicist and writer. Their residence, a ground floor flat, was 6B Upper Park Road, Belsize Park, and is now No. 1. Their marriage produced four children and six grandchildren. In one of his many later interviews when asked what were the most important events in his life. He replied there were two: not accepting his wife’s first refusal of marriage, and that his adult education was on a part-time basis.

While in London Drucker had recommenced his work as a journalist, this time writing for British newspapers. By 1935 he was writing for American magazines and newspapers. In 1937 the book

GERMANY, The Last Four Years – An independent examination of the Results of National

Socialism by “Germanicus” was published. “This book is the work of about a dozen men of some

achievement in Germany’s military, financial and industrial affairs.” (Germanicus et al 1937:3)

Drucker was one of the dozen. Later when the American Library of Congress attributed Drucker as the sole author, he protested at the inaccuracy. This was Drucker’s first contribution to a book in English and was confirmation that his intellectual credentials were being further established and accepted. Drucker’s time in England was a bridge between Continental Europe and America. During this period of his life he gained further valuable experience for his career development. His work as a banker introduced him to business management. His writing practised his work in English, while his further studies expanded his knowledge.

America 1937 – Onwards - Developing and Contributing Period

In January 1937 Drucker left England for America. At twenty-seven years of age, he kept the promise he made to himself at the age of fourteen at the time of the youth rally. He had escaped “pre-war” by leaving Europe for America. In the four years in England, Drucker’s career as a lecturer was placed on hold. His journalism and writing had further developed while his business

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career had developed from a nominal start in Hamburg as an export clerk, to an investment banker in London, one of the world’s major capital centres. His exposure to further commercial

situations and analytical training as a banker had added essentially to his skills.

Drucker’s assurance of a part-income was an improvement on his initial arrival in England in 1933, as he quickly set up home in New York. He had an engagement to write for newspapers in London, Glasgow and Sheffield. He was also commencing work as a financial advisor and economist to a group of British investors and his previous employer Freedberg & Co. During the first few months of his arrival in America he began adding to his journalism by writing for the

Virginia Quarterly Review, The Washington Post Philadelphia’s Saturday Evening Post,

Harper’s Magazine, and Asia. This was Drucker’s career development before his first book in

English was published, The End of Economic Man (May 1939). Economic Man gave Drucker a wider intellectual recognition with important reviews by Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), detailed later. Jonathan Priestly (1894-1984) who wrote as J B Priestley (John Boynton Priestly), the distinguished writer on social affairs, wrote: “At once the most penetrating and most

stimulating book I have read on the world crisis. At last there is a ray of light in the dark chaos”.

(1939: Dust Cover). That Economic Man established Drucker as an English language intellectual is attested by many who quote him including Karl Polanyi, on the “English Evangelicals”

(1939:93) (Polanyi 1944:171). His fellow countryman, Nobel Laureate Friedrich August Hayek (1899-1992), complimented Drucker’s analysis on Marxism and Russia, and his correct

observation “that the less freedom there is the more there is talk of the ‘new freedom’. Yet this

new freedom is a mere word which covers the exact contradiction of all that Europe ever

understood by freedom… The new freedom which is preached in Europe is, however, the right of the majority against the individual” (Hayek 1944: 21 & 118)

Because of Drucker’s phenomenal output, his researchers have been grateful for any guidance to help to categorise it, including Drucker’s own. It is my contention that when Drucker divides his

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books into two main groups of Management, or Economics Politics Society, he inadvertently misguides his readers because his management ideas are developing continually in all of his writings. Because his holistic view of management is based upon the Gestalt philosophy of reasoning that accepts no total isolation of different disciplines from each other, the result is that for Drucker management embraces the social, economic and political elements of life. It is for this reason that his books cannot be selected randomly when considering his management ideas. There is evidence that he was already considering management issues as World War II broke out, see The Industrial Revolution Hits the Farmers (Harper’s Magazine November 1939), which is referenced in Wayne Albert Risser Leys’(1905-1973) 1941 book Ethics and Social Policy page 83. This article was published after Drucker published Economic Man and before he wrote

Future both of which he classifies as Politics and Society.

In the months before World War II and after its outbreak Drucker’s journalism continued with his analysis of Nazi Germany’s economy and external policies. The New Republic had a close following of government employees, the American intelligence services, and business policy makers. In 1940 he set up an independent consultancy to satisfy these demands which continued throughout the war.

Drucker was aware, as the war progressed, that the demand for his writing about Germany and Europe would diminish. He widened his range of topics from European history, economics, political affairs, and foreign affairs and began to write about philosophy, education, religion, economics and the arts, extending his readership to include “Reader’s Digest” and “The Review

of Politics.” As a leading magazine journalist he was writing much of his time. This was helping

him to build a network of contacts, which would be one of his expanding strengths. Drucker later wrote that he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, and this situation drifted until he was about thirty. The drifting had stopped when he identified his main life’s work as the discipline of

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management. Much later at sixty he wrote that he still did not know what he wanted to do with the rest of his life as he always searched for new challenges within, and without of, management.

Drucker’s return to teaching was at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville New York in Spring 1941, the subjects being economics and statistics. He was engaged for one day a week until he was dismissed for failing to support a Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957) anti-Communist Manifesto type witch-hunt of a colleague, having witnessed enough intolerance in Frankfurt. Despite being subjected to an FBI enquiry, Drucker’s job was quickly replaced and by late 1941 he moved to Bennington College Vermont on a weekly basis, while also lecturing to small

colleges throughout America, having visited over fifty by the time America entered World War II. By the summer of 1942 Drucker had moved his family and taken up a full-time appointment at Bennington, which was described as a highly visible woman’s college.

He renewed his acquaintance with Polanyi who joined the teaching staff at Bennington. He and Drucker continued a close friendship, although ideologically they were at odds. This was a pattern in Drucker’s life of respecting people for their intellectual capabilities while being at odds with their ideas. Another example is recorded in Economic Man where the Introduction

(1939:vii-xiii) is by Henry Noel Brailsford (1873-1958), a supporter of Russian Communism and one of the most prolific writers on left-wing issues in the first half of the twentieth century; Drucker profiles Brailsford (1979:170-186).

Polanyi and Drucker were in accord that the evolution of society had not kept pace with economic changes and that it was imperative that this was brought about. Both started from the position that 17thc England was the most developed country both politically and economically. {Polanyi’s contention is that it is the tranches of The Enclosure Acts, between 1777 & 1795, which started with Statute of Artificers (1563) that began the social imbalance. This was followed by the action of magistrates at Speedhamland, Berkshire of 1795, which granted allowances to workers by