Before entering the subject, I think it is convenient to dedicate a few lines to the one who is recognized, from a sociological perspective, and in the corporate, managerial and directive sphere, the great management guru.
The Austrian lawyer and writer, who is considered the greatest philosopher of Management in the 20th century, author of more than 35 books in the managerial corporate world, the great Peter Ferdinand Drucker, was born in Vienna, on November 19, 1909 and On November 11, 2005, at the age of 95, he died in Claremont, California.
His works, with a peculiar intellectual distinction, marked by his foray into the world of Political Science, sociology and historical analysis, along with a moralistic tone and an exemplary eagerness, were characterized by their simplicity; for his eagerness to reach all readers; Drucker, never entered into technical specifications, his works have a marked generalist tone in order to be accessible to the general public.
I will rely on Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) to list some of his masterful works:
"The concept of corporation" (1946). The author reveals that through decentralization, General Motors becomes one of the largest American corporations. Drucker said decentralization was good because it created small groups where people felt their contribution was important. The success of this work showed that in those years there was enormous interest in management. Alfred Sloan Jr., president of GM from 1923 to 1956, would also tell about his experiences in the company he directed in his work: “My years with General Motors” (1962).
"The new society" (1950). In this important book Drucker brings together the themes that run through his first two books, "The end of the economic man" and "The future of the industrial man." Sharpen your impression of the new world order. It extends into the concept of the large company, as the representative social institution. It presents a picture of the way the world will work in the last decades of the 20th century, a picture that became remarkable reality.
"The practice of management" (1954). He did it for the common people to learn to manage, something that at that time only an elite could do. From then on, Administration became a true discipline and the book was the first "Bible" in management. His analysis of Management is a valuable guide for company leaders who need to study their own performance, diagnose their own failures and improve their own productivity, as well as that of their company. Illustrative examples are taken from companies such as Sears Roebuck & Co., General Motors, Ford, IBM, Chrysler, and American Telephone & Telegraph. This work also exposes about Management by Objectives, considering Drucker as one of the main pioneers of the concept.
"Management by objectives" (1964). It was the first book to explain business strategy. Drucker shows how existing businesses have to focus on opportunities rather than problems to be effective, so opportunities grow and develop. "'Management by Objectives' was the first book to discuss what is now called 'Business Strategy.' It is still the most widely used book on the subject. When I wrote it, more than twenty years ago, my original title was, in fact, 'Business Strategies', but 'strategy' in those days was not a term in common use. Indeed, when my editor and I decided to test the title with well-known executives, consultants, management professors, and booksellers, we were strongly encouraged to abandon that term. 'Strategy', they told us over and over again,it belongs to the military or perhaps to political campaigns, but not to business ”.
"Technology, management and society" (1970). It is a collection of essays that cover the technological trends of the 20th century, such as: long-term planning, reciprocal relationships between technology, science and culture; and those of the old and future administrator.
"The management of the future" (1993). While everyone was talking about the new economy, he says that it was society that was changing, and that it was changing faster and faster. The information revolution turned out to be one of those changes, as well as demographic changes and the decline of traditional industry as a provider of wealth and work. Terrorism was also one of the most radical agents of change in world politics. Executives had to understand the new realities in order to be successful in this new society.
"The post-capitalist society" (1999). Post-capitalist society is a knowledge society. In a capitalist system, "capital" is the critical production resource and is totally separate and even in opposition to "labor." In this society where we are going very quickly, it is "knowledge" and not capital that is the key resource. It cannot be bought with money or created by investment capital. Extensively explains the emerging economy, the knowledge economy, its protagonist (the knowledge worker), and the implications for organizations. An incisive analysis of the greatest global transformation that takes place from the age of capitalism to the knowledge society.
Excellent, now well, entering the second half of the last century (XX), after approximately 6 long years of the greatest war in history, the Second World War (1939 - 1945), the first steps are taken, somewhat timid at the beginning, and as he entered his adolescence, the great Administration Boom, whose beginning was clearly marked by the famous "Marshall Plan", gained strength.
The progressive elevation of the educational level gave rise to the appearance of a new workforce, with other needs and capacities. This fact allowed Drucker to formulate the theory of a new society that he called "PostCapitalist" based on knowledge (something similar to Bell's approach). “The change in the meaning of knowledge, which began two hundred and fifty years ago, has transformed society and the economy. Conventional knowledge is considered both the key personal resource and the key economic resource. Knowledge is today the significant economic resource. The traditional factors of production, soil (natural resources), labor and capital, have not disappeared, but they have become secondary; can be obtained, and with ease, as long as there is knowing and knowing in its new meaning is knowing as service,knowing how to obtain social and economic results ”(Drucker).
Drucker, correctly, places capital in a second position in the production equation: the discourse denies the survival of the capitalist system, laden with contradictions. Only in this way can systemic contradictions be resolved; the only successful long-term policy is for developed countries to transform industry from being labor-based to knowledge-based, and Drucker goes on to say, knowledge will bring productivity and added value, in the face of lower return on traditional resources: labor, land and capital (money).
Carlos Jesús Fernández Rodríguez, in his article "Management and Society in the work of Peter Drucker" published in 2008 in the International Journal of Sociology (RIS), Vol. LXVI, No. 49, January-April, 195-218, referring to He tells Drucker: «The society of the future is the knowledge society, whose basic characteristics are three: borderlessness, that is, the absence of barriers, fluidity, since knowledge travels with less effort than money; "Upward mobility" through training; and equal opportunities, since knowledge is available to everyone equally, although this does not imply that everyone will succeed (Drucker). The relationship of the individual with the organization undergoes a metamorphosis. Knowledge workers are so indispensable to organizations that they come to compete for them."They have to attract people, they have to retain them, they have to show them recognition and reward them, they have to motivate them, they have to serve and satisfy them" (,). The current worker does not demand security, he even rejects it. He only seems to ask for activities that motivate him, not a continuous income over time. The work will be oriented to each specific task, in multidisciplinary teams, and with knowledge as a basic resource ", and he continues to tell us:" Technical training is essential, without it, humanistics will become unproductive intellectual arrogance "He only seems to ask for activities that motivate him, not a continuous income over time. The work will be oriented to each specific task, in multidisciplinary teams, and with knowledge as a basic resource ", and he continues to tell us:" Technical training is essential, without it, humanistics will become unproductive intellectual arrogance "He only seems to ask for activities that motivate him, not a continuous income over time. The work will be oriented to each specific task, in multidisciplinary teams, and with knowledge as a basic resource ", and he continues to tell us:" Technical training is essential, without it, humanistics will become unproductive intellectual arrogance "
The post-capitalist society proposed by Drucker is a non-capitalist and non-socialist society, not pro-capitalist or anti-capitalist. It will simply be an "educated society" and a "society of large organizations" -official and private- that necessarily operate by virtue of the information flow. This guru assures that post-capitalist society is a knowledge society that addresses the limits of capitalism (its crises), taking up aspects of classic socialism such as cooperation, education to form citizens, horizontal relationships, and the social responsibility of the person, this This approach highlights the importance of the worker, but not just any worker, it is the knowledge worker, it is the citizen capable of putting into practice the knowledge learned through formal or informal education,In simple words, knowledge, knowledge has become the new means of production, and thus, the proletariat that yesterday was a worker, today is the knowledge worker, pejoratively referred to as the “white collar” worker.
The candidate for Doctor of Philosophy, from the Complutense University of Madrid, Juan Antonio González de Requena Farré in his article "A knowledge society?", Published in 2010 in the journal Education and Humanities - Vol, 2 - Nº 1, Referring to Drucker, he tells us: «For Drucker, the post-capitalist social formation, centered on the knowledge economy and the society of organizations, has, as its essential focus, the carrier of knowledge, that is, the educated person, the paradigm of the knowledge worker. In this sense, the fundamental dilemma facing the knowledge economy in post-capitalist society consists of how to reconcile two cultures: that of “intellectuals” (formulators of ideas) and that of “managers” (administrators of people and productive processes).The educated person (protagonist of the knowledge society and of organizations) works simultaneously in both media: and it is that, as intellectual workers, they need the organization as a field of application of their specialized knowledge; As managers, they require knowledge to obtain organizational performance. Thus, then, the knowledge society needs a type of educated person who neither denies the possibility of universalizing their knowledge, nor takes refuge in the nostalgia for such a self-sufficient humanistic knowledge, as alien to the specialized operational knowledge that the economy of the knowledge mobilizes. »They need the organization as a field of application of their specialized knowledge; As managers, they require knowledge to obtain organizational performance. Thus, then, the knowledge society needs a type of educated person who neither denies the possibility of universalizing their knowledge, nor takes refuge in the nostalgia for such a self-sufficient humanistic knowledge, as alien to the specialized operational knowledge that the economy of the knowledge mobilizes. »They need the organization as a field of application of their specialized knowledge; As managers, they require knowledge to obtain organizational performance. Thus, then, the knowledge society needs a type of educated person who neither denies the possibility of universalizing their knowledge, nor takes refuge in the nostalgia for such a self-sufficient humanistic knowledge, as alien to the specialized operational knowledge that the economy of the knowledge mobilizes. »as alien to the specialized operational knowledge that the knowledge economy mobilizes. "as alien to the specialized operational knowledge that the knowledge economy mobilizes. "
Excellent, which began as a necessity to strengthen and expand the Capitalist model (Marshall Plan) today, after many battles of all kinds, including ideological and intellectual battles, today after many years of reflection and maturity, which yesterday was the cane and In many cases the key that opened many doors, today is becoming the guillotine and is shaping the executioner, yes, not even the great Scottish economist and philosopher, Adam Smith, the guru of Capitalism, could foresee and much less predict the real and true power of Knowledge, neither Smith, nor any of his collaborators and later admirers, could project the secondary effects of Knowledge and it is precisely this that gave shape, color and texture to Peter Drucker's "PostCapitalist" society.
Now, this is a non-capitalist and non-socialist society, not pro-capitalist or anti-capitalist, it is a society that has the tools to study, analyze and reflect on the social model in which it is immersed. This level of consciousness, this level of maturity, not foreseen and therefore not analyzed, catalyzed the crystallization of an unthinkable risk, putting in check the great tycoons of the planet and these, immersed in nervousness and with the firm conviction of maintain and even improve surplus value, they are forcing their hegemonic mechanisms more and more without realizing that greed and non-existent respect for humanity has catalyzed an implosion that started a few years ago, if we have any doubts,Let's take a low flight through the different countries of Europe or simply compare the United States of today with what it was in the 80s or 90s, have you asked yourself why the need for Globalization?
From my point of view, the «PostCapitalist» society culminated together with the last century and the 21st century, thanks to the results of the studies, analyzes and reflections of the «PostCapitalist» society, the «PreSocialist» society is being engendered, which it is nothing more than the transition model towards socialism of the XXI century, it is not something imposed, it is simply the product of evolution, it is the result of maturity, it is the result of the simple and elementary comparison between the "I" and he we". As in the previous paragraph, let's make a low flight through the different countries of Latin America or simply compare the Venezuela of today with the one it was in the 80s or 90s, they have wondered why, we the Venezuelans, we have the best and most powerful Organic Labor Law? Why,Do we have the protection of the Organic Law of Prevention, Conditions and Work Environment (Lopcymat)?
We Venezuelans are one of the pioneers, in Venezuela we are at the beginning of the “Pre-Socialist” society, history will confirm it.
Footnotes
- Bell D. (1976). The advent of postindustrial society, Madrid, Alianza.Drucker P. (1993). The post-capitalist society, Barcelona, Apostrophe. Drucker P. (2001). The next society: a survey of the near future, The Economist, 11/03/2001, pp. 3-21.Drucker P. (1989). The new realities, Barcelona, Edhasa.
