Drucker Part Two

In Part Two of Peter Drucker’s “The Practice of Management” (2006), Drucker discusses “Managing by Objectives”. According to Drucker (2006), every manager, regardless of position in the organizations’ hierarchy, must have a clearly defined set of objectives that express their responsibilities, performance expectations and contributions as they relate to the companies’ goals (pp.121-126). Drucker (2009) states that these objectives should also outline what the manager can expect from the other managers and workers in each unit of the company, and how the managers’ contributions will affect the goals of the company (p. 127). In an article titled “Management by Objectives”, author Tim Hindle (2009) points out that other revered individuals in the business world, such as Bill Packard, a founder of Hewlett-Packard, have directly correlated management by objectives to the success of their business. Hindle (2009) supports Drucker’s theory that without clearly defined objectives, managers frequently lose sight of what their goals are because they are too engrossed in whatever is most pressing at the time. Hindle (2009) also lends support to Drucker’s idea that part of the success of managing by objectives is that managers at every level are asked to give input, which means they are more likely to be supportive of the organizations’ goals as they have helped to shape them. Hindle (2009) also discusses the flexibility of “Managing by Objectives” because this management style requires that the organization revisit its objectives if the managers feel that the organization is no longer on the correct path to the objectives that were previously stated. Hindle (2009) discusses dwindling popularity of Drucker’s “Managing by Objectives” in recent decades. Hindle (2009) emphasizes that even Drucker admits that “Managing by Objectives” will not work if the managers and the business are unaware of their true objectives, which Drucker says is “ninety percent of the time”,