Research On Drucker's Management Ethic

Management is related not only to political,economic,cultural and social development,but also to the creation of material wealth and the generation of spiritual wealth,and it also concerns the construction of a new civilization of human beings themselves.However,whether in the aspect of theoretical construction or practical application,management is often regarded as a science of "value-free",or as a tool to achieve "profit maximization".Nowadays,this tendency has become increasingly intense,leading to the result that the industrial value rationality and its management ideology that the west advocates have been placed in the "supreme" position.The“value-free” management has distorted people’s internal cognition and transcendental rationalism,and the value rationality and instrumental rationality in management are alienated into a separate parallel tracks,leading to the mutual opposition and contradiction between people and people,people and organizations,and people and society.On the one hand,this reflects the lack of value orientation in the mainstream management cognitive system,and also proves that the so-called "universal values" of the west cannot become the general philosophy of human management.Based on research and critical investigation on management ethics of Peter Drucker(hereinafter referred to as Drucker),this paper explores the base of management ethics,outlines its development history,summarizes its internal principles,and points out its values on management theory and practice,and further on,it endeavors to find answers to basic questions of management ethics,and to handle management “anomie” due to lack of management values.Drucker is regarded as the founder of modern management,the author of many original concepts,the creator of basic rules,and the promoter of innovative practices.His management thoughts were always pioneering.They transcend national border and cultures.Under the circumstance of varied political and economic systems,they’ve been verified scientific,effective and forward-looking on a global scale.Drucker has published about 40 monographs in 60 years which have been translated into more than30 languages,and they have been regarded as classics of management in the world.The real industry has regarded Drucker as a "master of masters".Jack Welch,Bill Gates,and Zhang Ruimin have been deeply influenced by his management thoughts.With regards to his outstanding contributions in management,he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002,the highest honor available to American citizens.Drucker’s management philosophy stays effective to this day in both theory and practice,mainly thanks to his unique management ethics thought,as Drucker always compared himself to Lynceus,the tower keeper from Faust,who regards "Born to see;meant to look",as the motto being a watchman for the management value.Drucker grew up under the influence of Austrian academic tradition.He experienced two turbulent world wars,and witnessed the social crisis in the process of western industrialization.These unique experiences laid a practical foundation for Drucker’s management ethics.The base of western traditional ethical thought,the philosophical influences of existentialism,the integration of conservatism and liberalism,and the enlightenment and nourishment of modern management thought have all contributed to the theoretical foundation of Drucker’s management ethics.Drucker’s construction of management ethics system started from his social management ethical thought.Being in Europe in the 1930 s,Drucker discovered,from the society of Nazi Germany derived of continuity and belief,that the traditional hierarchy brought by Christianity had been abandoned,that the value of democracy had been increasingly marginalized,that freedom had been lost in the tyranny and anarchism,and that totalitarian fascism was now on the historical stage.The new industrial reality has surfaced,and the "economic man" started to give way to the "industrial man".A new social form needs a new social vision.Drucker proposed "building a free and functional society",which is not only the purpose of Drucker’s social management ethical thought,but also the "original intention" and the logical starting point for Drucker to study management as an independent discipline.In Drucker’s social management ethics,freedom serves as the core value base,fairness serves as an important value balance,and efficiency serves as the inevitable value path.In Drucker’s ethical view,freedom is the premise of good and perfection;freedom is not right,but responsibility;freedom is not institutional arrangement,but an ethical principle;freedom is not majority domination;and Western democracy cannot bring "universal freedom".Drucker’s ethical view of justice combines the view of contract theory and Rawls’ theory of justice,and achieves transcendence in the management dimension,achieving a management balance of fairness and efficiency.Drucker’s efficiency ethics has distinct humanistic connotation,dialectically absorbing the utilitarian view and integrating the connotation of Rawls’ justice theory,making Drucker’s concept of efficiency in social management ethics the combination good purposes and good means in management.Drucker’s social management ethical thought has been fully practiced in both the industrial society and the knowledge society,and has achieved remarkable results.Drucker was the pioneer to introduce the concept of "organization" in management.Along with further research on industrial social management,Drucker came to realize that "organization" has become an important "organ" of the society,which not only performs various social functions,restores the human essence,but integrates individual forces to achieve social prosperity.The existence of an organization has its unique duality.Firstly,it is a part of the society.Secondly,it is of social value and purpose.Finally,an organization is both a special individual and a universal entity.In the 1940 s,Drucker was invited to conduct management research at GM,and accordingly,he started organizational management research and developed organizational management ethical thought.Drucker’s organizational management ethical thought mainly includes humanism,responsibility and performance.Drucker’s human-oriented ethics lies in the endless pursuit of essence of "people",from "spiritual people","intellectual people","political people","economic people","industrial people" to "intellectual people",taking "people" as the core of management.Though integration with classic human-oriented theories,to fulfilled the union of human nature and science in management.The practicality of human-oriented ethical thought settles human nature in management world,while reasoning is used for guidance in management.The responsibility ethics is the basic value expectation in organization management.It includes economic responsibility,social responsibility and the bottom line of “not to do when knowing it’s bad”,as reflects the "absolute goodness" in the organization management.Performance ethics is the core of organization management ethics,and the value goal of organizational survival and development from the perspective of value theory is determined.In the sense of ontology,the essence of organizational practice and innovation is fulfilled,and it explains the transformation of organizational performance from "alienation to humanization" from the perspective of epistemology.The humanism,responsibility and performance of Drucker organization management ethics not only play a vital role in varied dimensions such as marketing management,organizational design,target management and innovation management of organizational management,but also in guiding the management scope demarcation,rule design,decision-making and implementation of non-profit organizations.Drucker’s personal management ethical thought is a value judgment based on Drucker’s insight and analysis of human nature.Drucker explores and criticizes human nature from a broader vision and from more dimensions.On the basis of absorbing and inheriting the traditional western philosophy and the human nature assumption of management,the human base of Drucker’s management ethics has transcended traditional “egoism” and “altruism”,fulfilled the division of “goodness” and “evil”,turned pure conceptual speculation into human nature speculation,and fulfilled the transition from view of substance to view of practice on human nature.Drucker’s personal management ethics includes effectiveness and self-discipline.Drucker’s concept of efficiency tells that efficiency means self-perfection and self-realization,that effectiveness is the perfect union of human nature and efficiency,and that effectiveness is righteous value judgement,and it solves the paradox of incompatibility between organizational efficiency and personal efficiency,and integrates and alleviates the contradiction.The self-discipline in Drucker’s personal management ethics represents self-discipline above responsibility and is used for endless perfection.It not only includes rational self-discipline of will freedom emphasized by Kant,but also concerns autonomy,self-consciousness and self-control.It comprises rational practices,and transcends the "self-discipline" in the pure conceptual sense of Kant.In Drucker’s view of self-discipline: autonomy means union of management will and management subject,self-consciousness represents ideal triumphs over fact,and self-control implies self-discipline defeats heteronomy.Drucker’s practice of personal management is reflected in the habitual pursuit of effectiveness and target management based on selfdiscipline.Drucker’s social management ethics serves as the foundation of the ethics system,and the organizational management ethics supports the social management ethics and becomes the backbone and organ,and the personal management ethics works as soul and blood of the ethics system.These thoughts form an endless cycle and contribute to Drucker’s management ethics system.Drucker’s management ethical thought is interlinked in dimensions of society,organization and individual,and broadens the scope of management ethics.Drucker criticizes and integrates the scientific nature and human nature in management,and makes management a real "liberal art" through his management ethical thought.Drucker constantly consummates his management ethics thought during practice,and actively creates a new paradigm of management ethics with benign interaction between theory and practice.Drucker’s management ethics also has the following shortcomings: the loose system caused by the empirical methodology,the human nature hypothesis lacks reasonable demonstration,and it cannot overcome the historical limitations of capitalism.As Drucker’s management ethical thought tells us,firstly,the multi-element balance reconstructed management ethics system.It expands the value scope and explores the value in depth,and enriches the value dimension.Secondly,from the perspective of organic system,it constructs the management ethic system and connotation generation.Starting from the organic perspective,it develops the management ethics with the “active order” and strives to build the “open system”,actively "stays away from the balance zone",and promotes the practice of management ethics with "nonlinear transition",so as to bring vitality for management ethics.On the new century with great changes,it is mission of the time for us to explore the management ethics based on the community of shared future for Mankind.We shall inherit the essence of Chinese traditional management ethics,analyses western management ethics dialectically,discard limitations and deficiencies,and absorb advanced concepts and excellent connotation within.Seek complementary between China and the west,inherit essence and innovate”,to develop management ethics for mankind together.