“…work must always be organized in such a manner that whatever strength, initiative, responsibility and competence there is in individuals becomes a source of strength and performance for the entire group.”
The purpose of the chapter is to help managers increase the effectiveness of their team members. Drucker makes three arguments. First, in a post-industrial society people are not motivated to greater effectiveness by fear. They must be challenged. Second, the business requires profit and change while the employee requires income, status, equal opportunity, and meaning. Management needs a strategy to fulfill these requirements. Third, enterprise-employee friction can be diminished when the benefits of profit are understood.
Executives should evaluate the structure and plan of management to determine if it is fulfilling business and employee needs. They should read the chapter section titled “The Worker’s Demands on the Enterprise.”
An important idea is that employees need work that is meaningful and serious.
(The Practice of Management, chapter 20)