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| Sixth Week: |
What makes people happy --- In search of a non-economic society |
| Toyokeizai: What does Drucker say about humans and society? |
The center of his concern is always humanity. Man is an individual being, which is seen by the fact that he dies individually---whatever he achieved, whatever money he left, whatever life he led or even however loved or being loved. Man has such an individual aspect. But at the same time, he is a social being. He needs social bonds. He finds meaning in life when he contributes to society. Human existence is possible when these two aspects are established. Drucker wrote only one thesis on the individual aspect of Man, "The Unfashionable Kierkegaard"(1949). Except for that thesis, all of his works are on the subject of how Man as a social existence can contribute to society. Consequently, Drucker's concern in his works is on the happiness of Man as a social being. Man, as such a being, needs society that functions. Then, what does one need to have a functioning society? On the condition of society that functions as a society, Drucker wrote in detail in"The Future of Industrial Man"(1942). In order for a group of people to be a society, each individual there has to have status. People without status are just molecules. At the same time, in order for a group of people to be a society, each individual there has to have a role. People without roles are nothing but a mob. For society to work as a functioning society, individuals there have to have status and roles. As a general tendency, or at least in popular belief, the emphasis is rather on roles in the West, and on status in Japan. Those two are equally important, and necessarily indispensable. It is sad if work is just a job, and wrong if people are just being there. Mass in despair and Non-economic society Adding to these two conditions, the power must be legitimate. It does not matter whether it is by succession or God-given right. With assent of the people, power becomes legitimized. These are the three conditions in which society is formed as a functioning society. This is Drucker's general theory of society. Needless to say the individual needs freedom and equality. It is intolerable to be enslaved or to be discriminated. Of course what is free and equal depends on the society and on the era. There was an era in which the individual was defined as a child of God or as a political existence. Then, Adam Smith described Man in his economic existence. Man was caricatured as an Economic Man or Economic Animal. Since then, the description has stuck. Bourgeois Capitalism said that by setting economic value at the center and pursuing profit, ideal society would be formed by the invisible hand of God. Marxist Socialism said that by taking the means of production from capitalists, proletariats would be liberated. What we have to pay attention here is that the both were based on the idea of economy-centered society. However, the loss of a large number of people in the World War I, and the loss of a large number of jobs in the Great Depression led the mass to reject such economic supremacy. People refused to live and die for economy, or to start war for economy and to cease fire for economy. In the countries such as the U.K. and France, where people were attached to democracy won by themselves, there was hesitation to go to non-economic society, then totalitarian non-economic society. However, in the countries where democracy was given as a by-product of national unification such as Germany, Italy and Japan, people could not resist temptation of non-economic society. The essence of fascism totalitarianism was not so much militarism, repression, or violence. It was more than that. It was the non-economic society. In Nazi Germany, at a factory, the power was in the hand of a gate man, a loyal Nazi member, and at a store, a newly hired with a direct connection to Berlin. Fascism totalitarianism was an answer to the outcry of the masses that rejected working and dying for the sake of economy. This is the main theme of his maiden book at twenty-nine years old, "The End of Economic Man" (1939). Would economic supremacy make Man happy? If not, what would make Man happy? Drucker has been contemplating this issue all his life. He once thought that he found a form of the non-economic society in Japanese companies. Japanese companies where the rank and file discusses their businesses after office hours are different from those of Western companies where workers were treated as parts of a machine. In Japan, the working place is a community with bonds. Japanese companies, however, went too far and dead ended. In spite of this, Drucker still has a hope for Japan. If Japan realizes open and flexible organizations, giving a value to bonds, it would become a world model. In fact, there already is a company that gives help to its ex-employees both physically and spiritually, and also there is a company that takes a new hire from a bankrupted company and makes him a head of its subsidiary. Drucker sees a clue to the problems in the development of NPOs Would economic supremacy make the individual happy? If the answer to this question is not totalitarianism that denies freedom, what is the answer? Everybody knows surely that Man does not exist for the sake of economy. I believe that the lack of this common sense is the underlying cause of the blockage in today's Japan. Ironically, if we put economic value in the center, economy itself goes wrong. In the United States, NPOs are the place where one finds self-fulfillment and bonds to others. It is in NPOs that one brings out his ability fully and affirms his bonds to others. It is clear that governments are incompetent as a doer for the settlement of social problems. And it looks that only the United States has found a clue to such settlement. In other words, she has gotten a clue that solves two kinds of problems by forming one institution. It is the NPO. NPOs are not only for the help of the need but also for the volunteers. It is a clue to the recovery of citizenship that is now earnestly being sought. Drucker says only by paying taxes once a year and voting once in four years, one cannot be satisfied with himself as a social being. In NPOs, he contributes to society visibly with his strengths and values. The reason that NPOs in the United States grew so rapidly was not because Americans suddenly realized the importance of charity and increased their donation, but because NPOs have learned a lot from business management. Drucker says we are now at the stage where business can learn from NPOs. NPOs provide motivation and a sense of mission to knowledge workers. NPOs give examples of the relationship between the board and executives. Drucker is not only a teacher for business or of governmental agencies, but also for NPOs. One of Drucker's books "Managing the Nonprofit Organization" (1990) is a bible of NPOs. Crowning Drucker's name, and having him as honorary chairman, the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management makes an annual prize for the best NPO practice. The prize is widely celebrated. It inspires other NPOs to replicate and raise their performances by announcing excellent NPO activities to the public. It is a practical example of the benchmarking that Drucker preaches. Drucker teaches and practices. From now on, community that is indispensable for each individual will change drastically. It cannot be a village or a neighborhood anymore. Where can we find it? In the United States, it is in NPOs where people offer their services as volunteers. In Japan, it may be in companies and other organizations that will become more flexible and open. Or, it may be in the world of individual's specialties in the developed countries as a whole. The days in which society was believed to be saved by a social power, notably by the power of the central government, is completely over. Some may demand socialism, but they do not believe in the government. Socialism in its own sense does not hold up any more. Welfare-capitalism is no good, either. Neither a John F. Kennedy's nor a Lyndon Johnson's program could solve the problems. Now, everyone knows that government cannot save society by its own hand. Drucker says government has its inherent weakness. Government can make infrastructure and set rules. It can contribute for a world peace. It must do so. But it cannot be a doer. It is awfully clumsy. Originally, this was a matter of common knowledge. This was merely and temporarily replaced by an illusion from after World War I. In Japan, the illusion continues by force of habit. However, it will be a common knowledge soon. It was Margaret Thatcher that ignited the privatization boom, but it was Peter F. Drucker in his famous book "The Age of Discontinuity" (1969) that gave the British Conservative Party the idea for privatization. The coming of Pluralist Society and the challenge in the third millennium Drucker says, political integration through economic interests that used to function in Japan and the United States does not work any more. Knowledge workers do not belong to any interest block. There is no such thing. On the other hand, it is clear that integration through belief in salvation by society proved to be useless and nothing but dangerous. Further more there is no political party that answers the demand of knowledge workers who are the central core in the knowledge society. We do not see where we are going. A group of political independents may offer some hints for the answer, but not the answer itself. Adding to the task of overcoming the problems of fifty years of transition, and along with the problem of ten to fifteen years of "the lost decade" in case of Japan, there is another tremendous task left for us into the third millennium or the 2000s. It is the problem that will not be able to be solved even until 2020, 2030, or 2100 and 2200. It is obvious that social problems cannot be solved by government. Of course, they are not solved by the individuals and families. Social needs can be solved only by the variety of organizations that have competent knowledge. And only when those organizations bring out their strengths in their specific field offering their products, services, medical care, or education, those needs will be fulfilled. In other words, society has become plural. This does not mean that traditional communities had disappeared. New communities are being born. Pluralist society, in which thousands of organizations with respective single objectives and old communities, as well as new ones, exist together, has emerged. It already exists. Then, here is the new problem. Who will take care of the problems that are left in the gap between those organizations and communities? And who will take care of the whole in balance? Drucker places this as a task for the third millennium. The second millennium sought centralization. The third millennium seeks pluralism. There were tasks which were characteristic to centralization. And also, there are tasks specific to decentralization. We can understand and tackle the problems of pluralist society only by seeing the whole as a whole. Otherwise, we cannot find even a clue to solve them. Energy and environment are these kinds of problems. Drucker says the environmental issue is one of the biggest tasks not only in the 21st century but also in the third millennium. The important thing here is to monitor, not to assess. We do not know what will happen in complex eco-systems. This is true for everything in the coming age. Most assessment fails. Drucker's basic stance is to see things well. Man does not have the ability to evaluate in advance. Effort for assessment is necessary. But, it is very dangerous to have an illusion that everything can be evaluated by assessment. In addition, cost effectiveness is terribly low. What is increased is just a bunch of papers. This is also true to any business. Drucker preaches that business in all cases must start small. He says the unexpected customer is the true customer. Assessment beforehand is difficult. The best way to deal with environmental problems is to make it a profitable business. There are a lot of successful examples. Drucker refers to a company, which realized that their products contained a toxic element, started to research the toxicity of chemical products and led it to a successful business for toxic inspection. Social responsibility leads to business. Innovation is born from inconvenience or problems. There are opportunities in problems. |
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Two books to recommend: "The End of Economic Man: The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1939), Diamond "Managing the Nonprofit Organization" (1991), Diamond |
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