CLAREfONT GRADUATE SCHOOL

Fall Term 1974/75

BA 341 The Management Process
4 Units
7:00
9:30 p.m.

Professor Drucker

This course aims at acquainting the student with Management

-as a discipline
-as a basic function in economy and society
-as a process; and
-as a personal challenge, adventure and opportunity.
The course does not assume any previous knowledge of, or study in, f.1anagement.
Ex
perience in work in organizations, whether in business or in other institutions,
will be helpful but is not essential.
The course does, however, assume mature students.
A great deal of matter is go
willing to take responsibility for their m..m learning.
ing to be packed into the fourteen or fifteen class meetings--and the student will
have to organize his work, and above all, his thoughts to get maximum benefit,
especially as the class is likely to be quite large.
The class will run on THREE PARALLEL LINES
-lecture by the instructor--usually the first hour of the session
-discussion in small groups or in the whole class--of a number of
short cases to be distribut with this outline
-the student's own reading and writing.
These three dimensions of the course will be closely correlated but the correlation
will largely have to be done by the student--more than willing to help, advise and
counsel individuals, is conscious of the limitations size inevitably imposes on
close personal working relations in this course.
The student will therefore be expected fairly early in the course to acquaint himself
\'lith what ; s known--or a11 eged to be known--about r1anagement; the b/0 books in the
list that try to summarize the prevailing state of knowledge, confusion and ignorance:
The Practice of
The Process of ranagement, and Drucker:
Newman, Summer & Harren:
Management should therefore at least be skirned by each student very early in the
course.
Acquaintance with these books and with the basic concerns and terminology
of ianagement will be taken for granted after a week or two.

BA 341

The Management Process

Professor Drucker

-2-

LECTURES

The instructor's lectures will be based on the fact that the students in the class
are going to be tomorrow's managers. They will therefore try to identify the
major areas of managerial concern for tomorrow, identify the questions we are asking
them, and try to summarize the approaches) experiments, and experiences most likely
to be productive but also those which, no matter how popular, are least likely to
be productive. The lectures will deal with the following main subject areas:

1.

The Dimensions of Management

The Entrepreneurial Function in Business
The Entrepreneurial Function in Society
The ranagerial Dimension-the Human Organization
The Social Dimension
The Challenqe of Communications
Growth, Stability and Corporate !.1eight Control
Change and Innovation
Know1 edge Work & Know 1edge lJorker
The Multinational Manager - The Multi-Institutional r-1anaqer
"'
The Effective Decision
The Manager of Tomorrow

2.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

October 14
October 21
October 28
November 4
November 11
November 18
November 25
December 2
December 9
December 16
January 6
January 13

The last class sessions will be devoted to an over-all discussion of the course,
its main topics, the major questions it raised in the minds of students, and so on.

II

Sr1ALL OI SCUSSION GROUPS

The second hour

either in small
discussion with
following cases
given:

of the class period will normally be devoted to class discussion,

discussion groups or, after small groups have reported back, in
the entire class sitting as a "committee of the whole." The
will be discussed--not necessarily all of them, or in the order

-FUNCTION OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

.._ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE CASE
'UNIVERSAL ELECTRONICS
.... 1ARHJER PAPER
"STRUCTURE OF A BUSINESS DECISION
'r4ANAGING RESEARCH
'CONTRIBUTION OF BIGNESS
TOWN OEPARTrENT STORE
-.>-" IU'JINCIBLE liFE INSURANCE
PEERLESS STARCH

l1

(first

-..z_

ease

to l;)e

diseussed)

.
-t;x::, l:::-- cL

9.c......>ca )

BA 341

The r1anagement Process

In these discussions we shall try -

-3-

Professor Drucker

-to learn how one thinks through and defines a problem;

-how top management, seeing the business as a whole, functions {or should function);
-how one reduces the chaos of the universe to something one can comprehend and
tackle ;
-how one converts the good resolutions of the thinker into effective action.

III - THE STUDENT'S OWN READING AND WRITING VORK

Each student will be expected to hand in JMO paper:.s during the term -- the first one
due on November ll, the second on December 16.
One of these papers should be a discussion of THE INVINCIBLE LIFE ASSURANCE CASE.
For the other paper the student will be expected to pick his own choice out of the
management literature--the term is used broadly and comprises any book (or major
article) dealin with the governance of institutions and the discharge of the
leadershi res n
--te
e 1nstruc or w y e c ose t 1s oo a
gnificant;
w a
e thinks the author tried to do; and what he learned from the book . There is
no need to praise, cicize or condemn the book; indeed one of the purposes of
the exercise is to wean the student from having "opinions" and of asking "who is
right" and teach him to ask instead the two key questions: Mhat does the auther
try to do?" and "lhat did I learn and how can I use it? "
The choice of the texts is up to the student; however, it might be a good idea to
check with the instructor to see \l!hether the choice makes sense. Also books or
articles dealing with purely functional matters (e.g., Quality Control or Personnel
Mana9 ement) or with techniques and gimmicks (e.g., Encounter Groups or Work Measure
ment) do not belong in this course and will not be accepted as subjects for this
paper. And the instructor's writings--whether books or articles--are "verboten."
All papers should be BRIEF--maximum twelve to fifteen pages, double-spaced typing.
Shorter papers are preferable--the maximum is, as usual, not the optimum (the best
paper on any case I ever got ran for four lines). Take as much space as the
assignment needs--and not one line more. Please put your name and a page number
on every page; type only on one side of the sheet, staple the pages, but use no
folders, binders or covers.

BA 341

The r4anagement Process

Professor Drucker

READING LIST

Required Reading
The following books are on reserve at Honnold Library; or can be purchased at
Huntley Bookstore:
HD 31 p72

Edited by Peter Drucker

Preparing Tomorrow's Business

Leaders Tod!Y, Prentice Hall 1969

HD 31 N484

Newman, Summer & Warren

The Process of Management,

Prentice Hall l967

HD 70 U508

Peter Drucker

The Practice of Management

Harper & Row 1954

Recommended Reading (books can be purchased at Huntley Bookstore)

The r.1oral Crisis in flanagement, Thomas A. Petit, f1cGra\'J Hill 1967.
Corporate Social Responsibilities, Clarence Walton, Wadsworth 1967.
Managing for Results, Peter Drucker, Harper & Row 1962.
The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker, Harper & Row 1967.
-Management:

Tasks; Responsibilities; Practices, Peter Drucker, Harper & Row 1973.