Management in the twenty-first century

As the twentieth century eases toward closure, there are indications that new performance are aborning. Somehow, they seem to cannibalize the best from old systems to weave the new. They leave behind the lock-step work flow of the engineered assembly process and abandon the narrow specialization of work that characterized it. In its place there is flexibility for the system to redesign itself around a multi skilled work force, trained and empowered to make production decisions formerly reserved solely for production engineers. This is one current variety of emerging performance system. But it is probably only one of many new kinds of performance management systems with potential to emerge in this age. Indeed, the pace of technological change may open the door to a variety of performance systems, each suited to its particular industry or market, each with its own character.

Management in the twenty-first century appears destined to face the challenge of creating and re-creating ever more competitive and effective performance systems. Doing so will require understanding and appreciation of the evolution of performance systems through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and understanding the basic elements that made them successful. We may begin with an historical review of performance systems and build to the present, identifying the characteristics of such systems as we progress.

The first stirrings of modern shop management practices appear within the discipline of industrial engineering. The dominant personality in this field unquestionably is Frederick Winslow Taylor, the universally acknowledged father of scientific management. Taylor's accomplishments training within a context of a robust and supportive work culture. Indeed, one of the best paths to high performance at the turn of the twenty-first century appears to be in systematic, purposeful construction of a performance culture formed around the selected skills and attitudes of individual workers, augmented by intensive training within a performance culture. Attention to relevant individual differences and to work group values is indispensable to creation of such a culture. Indeed, an argument for the necessity of discriminating good from poor potential workers probably turns on the individual's potential to the shape and quality of organization culture. Ultimately, the robustness of a culture is determined by the clarity, honesty and openness of its communications. These are issues that must also be visited.