Is successful management the gatekeeper to a functioning society?

In a democratic society, significant power is given to the organization – to individual institutions – and not to the government. However, falling into the clutches of a totalitarian societal mindset is an ever-present threat. 

It is for this reason that management is the tool that organizations must wield and uphold to function successfully within society. 

Management is the dominant, decisive power. Making successful management the gatekeeper to totalitarianism. 

In totalitarian countries the government limits organizations – their decisions, place within society, and ultimate veto power. Whereas in a democratic country, pluralist institutions are encouraged. Government has little control over the function of any private institution. 

While the development and survival of these pluralist institutions is key to the prevalence of democracy, Peter Drucker issues a warning to the highly educated man. To management. To the managers. 

Drucker posits that anyone equipped with knowledge, the ability to learn and do –

“is equipped with so much power as to be a menace, if not a monster unless he has virtue. He must have … a commitment to serve no mean end. He needs spiritual values founded in the knowledge of man’s fallibility and mortality… and in the knowledge that freedom is but the responsibility to choose between service to a true and a false master.”

Education is a privilege to wield, and remains a threat to society so long as man is imperfect. Minglo Shao – the founder of the Peter F. Drucker Academy – reminds us that knowledge is power, and power is responsibility. This truth makes education and knowledge dangerous in the wrong hands. 

For this reason, American education often rejects the traditional concept of the “educated individual.” In President Lincoln’s words, responsible self-governing American citizens, “do not want to be masters because they do not want to be slaves.” 

To be highly educated places a burden on your shoulders. One to uphold and influence society through which master you place your service. It inherently asks you to be a slave to choice. To choose daily between service to an institution that positively influences society, and one that negatively impacts it. One that abandons good management, or one that utilizes it for good. 

To look at it another way, Shao reminds us of Peter Drucker’s “Monster and the Lamb.” A concept that comes from Drucker’s 1984 work, Adventures of a Bystander. 

A Lamb is someone who is innately liberal but does not oppose evil when it is present. He does not take a stand. Likewise, he may also place too much value in his own abilities, essentially falling victim to pride. Believing that he is working for the greater good, but tainted by unrealistic expectations of himself and his own abilities. 

A Monster, on the other hand, is power-hungry. He uses his education as a way to gain position, and wield power over others. This position affords him the ability to change the course of history. 

Both the Monster and the Lamb are a threat to society, albeit in different ways. The highly educated individual is constantly under threat of becoming one or the other. In using his power to topple society instead of work for the greater good. 

Shao recognizes the Monsters and Lambs in present-day society. They will always exist, but what can you do as a responsible self-governing citizen to combat this? 

The answer is management.

The struggle is within the mind and a successful manager must default to conscience. To realize individual dignity – freedom – is pivotal. A commitment to serve no mean end is the only way for the highly educated man to function as a contributing citizen without falling prey to the Monster or the Lamb. 

Such a knowledge worker is naturally a person who has realized this freedom and dignity. And they lead through management by teaching. Making management the definition of a Liberal Art. This manager knows his power and his responsibility to society, and that his influence creates more responsible knowledge workers. 

Today, the concept of freedom is a universal agreement amongst all the world’s countries and peoples. Even in totalitarian governments, although it may not be practiced, the human desire for equality and freedom is known. 

If the concept is universal, what has it come to mean in present day? For Minglo Shao, real freedom is when each citizen keeps his own understanding. Because of this, it is the responsibility of successful management to continuously clarify the concept within liberal art and education. 

However, equality is only meaningful within dignity. The dignity that every individual can take responsibility and contribute to public interest in society. That every individual has education and choice to serve the master of his choosing.

It is through the organization of achievement that personal fulfillment awaits. Only at this point of human dignity can we realize true and real equality. It is the responsibility of Management as a Liberal Art to realize this potential both on the individual and organizational level.