Is Management As We Know It Obsolete?

The concepts of "Management" and "Manager" go way back than expected. These words emerged in the 16th century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Ancient texts on this subject go as far as Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", Niccolo Machiavelli's "Prince", and Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations". Peter Drucker, who passed away in 2005 had gained a well-deserved reputation as a management guru, and wrote one of the first books on applied management. While everything changed in the world and innovations in many areas were taking place, the concept of management remained largely as it was designed in the early 1900s.

Planning, Organizing, Directing, and Controlling, defined as the roles of the manager, are still in the management books today. So is the saying that "a manager does not do work himself, he gets it done", which was said a hundred years ago. However, the expectations of employees, customers, and people have changed dramatically. The basic elements of competition no longer rest on worker productivity. Efficiency is necessary but not sufficient. There is no body of employees who are only expected to do what they are told, and not put their mind and creativity to work. The main factor of competition is to make the company innovative, including the employees, customers, suppliers, and even outside people who do not appear to be stakeholders in the process. This makes it necessary to redefine the roles of management and the manager.

* Why does management not change when everything else changes?

* Can new problems be solved with 100-years old management approaches?

* Does change necessarily have to come from above?

* How to create a company as agile as the change itself?

* Can the intelligence of ordinary employees be mobilized with old approaches?

Management was first invented to guide groups of semi-skilled workers to solve problems of productivity and economies of scale. Bureaucracy was envisaged as the methodology for this. Today's managers, on the other hand, face completely different problems. In the face of what Joseph Schumpeter calls "Creative Destruction", how will they manage to innovate in order to keep their companies flexible, agile, resilient, valid, and profitable? In the innovation economy, where creative intelligence is the key to success, how will they ensure that their employees' voluntary participation and creativity are brought to work instead of leaving them at home? It is not possible to meet the problems of today and the future with the principles of the management approach based on bureaucracy from the past. The principle of hierarchy that places little value on new ideas while overestimating experience, a principle of specialization that confines learning to a certain area, and the principle of planning and control that creates a dangerous illusion of predictability, must be reviewed. Likewise, the perspective that focuses on the existing, such as improving the existing, creating a best practice example, seems safer at first sight but is actually risky and is far from taking companies forward.

A group of scientists and business leaders gathered in California and tried to create a roadmap for innovation in management. As a result of the work of this group, 25 topics were determined that the management of the future should target. Some of these are:

* Make sure that the management's job serves a higher purpose,

* Reduce fear, increase confidence,

* Redesign control methods,

* Redefine the role of leadership,

* Increase and use variety,

* Create an internal market for ideas, talents, and resources,

* Encourage differences of opinion and criticism,

* Create holistic performance criteria,

* Extend the management's time frame and perspective.