Issue No 155 December 2005

Obituary: Peter Drucker

19th November 1909 — 11th November 2005

Peter Drucker has died at the age of 95. Described by others as 'the father of modern management' he defined himself as a 'social ecologist'. A management and social theorist of the highest order, Drucker was a teacher who wrote prolifically and with considerable impact on the world around him.

His first book The end of economic man: the origins of totalitarianism (1939), was made required reading for every new British army officer by Winston Churchill and many of his later books are still on the reading lists for management courses throughout the world.

The challenges that Drucker made to accepted management practice of the 1940s and 50s are standard behaviours today. His focus on the importance of the employee and the social impact of management decisions are familiar territory to 21st century managers, but were original and difficult concepts when he first voiced them. This tendency towards the radical and visionary never deserted him. His book discussing the world where knowledge is wealth Post capitalist society (1993), identifies issues that were largely unknowns at that point.

Although Drucker will no longer be producing these great texts we do still have a record of his thoughts that will continue to challenge managers for years to come. The body of literature produced by Drucker has been supplemented over the years by further books and articles discussing both him and his theories (eg. The world according to Drucker by Jack Beatty, 1998).

Should you ever feel the need to measure your thoughts against those of a master, twenty-two of his original books and some of the commentaries are available from Christchurch City Libraries and articles by or about him can be read in magazines accessible online through our premium databases.

Kate Ogden
Business and Computing Centre