Any society in the era of the new technology would perish miserably were it to run the economy by central planning.
The new technology will greatly extend the management area; many people now considered rank-and-file will have to become capable of doing management work. And on all levels the demands on the manager’s responsibility and competence, her vision, her capacity to choose between alternate risks, her economic knowledge and skill, her ability to manage managers and to manage worker and work, her competence in making decisions, will be greatly increased.
The new technology will demand the utmost in decentralization. Any society in the era of the new technology would perish miserably were it to attempt to get rid of free management of autonomous enterprise so as to run the economy by central planning. And so would any enterprise that attempted to centralize responsibility and decision making at the top. It would go under like the great reptiles of the saurian age who attempted to control a huge body by a small, centralized nervous system that would not adapt to rapid change in the environment.
ACTION POINT: Do you micromanage your employees? Start empowering them by making sure they are trained properly to do their jobs, and then give them responsibility to do it. Provide room for failure.
The Practice of Management
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker