The Essential Peter Drucker
by Bruce Rosenstein
The SLA's motto, "Putting Knowledge to Work," could also be the personal calling card for Peter Drucker.
Drucker, the keynote speaker at the 2002 SLA annual conference in Los Angeles, CA, is in many ways the ultimate "knowledge worker." In fact, he coined that term more than 30 years ago and has been writing about the related topics of knowledge and information since the mid-1960's.
His recent collection, The Essential Drucker, has dozens of pages about knowledge and information, and most of it is directly applicable to our work as librarians and information professionals. Reading through Drucker's works on these topics provides an almost Biblical feel. If we read them over and over and apply them in daily life, we cannot help but be more adept in our work.
Drucker stresses that knowledge workers should be effective within their organizations. The knowledge (or information) itself is not enough. In his 1967 book, The Effective Executive, Drucker says knowledge workers who make proper, effective contributions are executives, whether or not they are part of top management. In a chapter from 1999's Management Challenges for the 21st Century, he makes the bold statement that the concept of managing oneself "demands that each knowledge worker think and behave as a chief executive officer."
One of the most valuable writings for information professionals in The Essential Drucker may be the chapter titled "The Information Executives Need Today." (The article comes from his 1995 book Managing In a Time of Great Change.) In this chapter, he says " information has to be organized so as to question and challenge a company's strategy. To supply data is not enough. The data have to be integrated with strategy, they have to test a company's assumptions, and they must challenge a company's current outlook."
He goes on to say that online databases are not sufficient on their own because they provide answers, but do not ask questions. "What we need," Drucker writes, "are services that make specific suggestions about how to use the information, ask specific questions regarding the user's business and practices, and perhaps provide interactive consultation."
In Drucker's world, the necessary information is outside the organization. It is our task to find it, organize it, and make it meaningful.
When working with others, we must determine what information we owe and in what form it needs to be. This concept may be second nature to SLA members, but we may also ask ourselves how it is consistently done in our organizations.
The section "Information Challenges" from Management Challenges for the 21st Century should also be required reading for everyone in SLA. It describes the relationship between connecting data, information, and computers, and how they relate to our organizations: "Information technology," he writes, "has centered on data their collection, storage, transmission, presentation. It has focused on the 'T' in 'IT.' The new information revolutions focus on the 'I.' They ask, 'What is the meaning of information and its purpose?'"
A particularly important part of this book analyzes knowledge worker productivity. He has often been harsh in his judgments about how productive knowledge workers really are. He details six factors in productivity, including determining the task, imposing responsibility and granting autonomy, building continuous innovation into the work, continuous learning and teaching, quality beats quantity, and the knowledge worker should be treated as an asset rather than a cost.
Carefully reading and understanding Drucker's thoughts on information and knowledge will help us develop a greater appreciation for our work.
Bruce Rosenstein is a librarian at USA TODAY and an adjunct professor atThe Catholic University School of Library and Information Science. He can be reached at brosenstein@usatoday.com.
Selected Bibliography:
The Age of Discontinuity (Transaction Publishers, 1992; originally published 1968)
The Essential Drucker (HarperCollins, 2001)
Management Challenges for the 21st Century (HarperCollins, 1999)
Managing for Results (HarperBusiness, 1964)
Managing In a Time of Great Change (Truman Talley Books/Dutton, 1995)
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