Beschreibung
Preface to the 1st German Edition The present book, of which the original manuscripts for Chapters 1-3 were completed in August 1977 and accepted as a habilitation thesis by the University of St. Gallen in 1978, is committed to a long-standing tradition honored in St. Gallen. Since as early as the mid-1960s, a group of varying composition mentored by Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Hans Ulrich had been trying to establish a management theory that focused on the design and management of complex socio-technical systems. Their intention was to reform business administration studies and the pertinent, very economics-centered way of thinking. At the same time, however, the group moved away from business administration, since, from today's perspective, it is highly questionable whether business administration and management theory have anything in common at all. The way I see it, management theory attempts to solve a problem quite different from that which business administration deals with. Whereas Wöhe in his Einführung in die allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre "Introduction to general business administration" points out that business administration deals with "the sum of all economic decisions taken in the context of a business organization," to then explain that its focal point is "not the business as such" but rather "the economic side of a business and of business processes," management theory aims to gain control over the entire system made up of the organization and its environment. As such, management theory, just like management practice, cannot limit itself to a particular aspect. The system has to be under control in all relevant dimensions. The strive for multidimensionality is not the only element typical of this understanding of management theory: An even more significant aspect is the element of "getting something under control." Decisions like those analyzed in business economics studies can be one means to achieve this control, but they surely are not the only one. As I hope to demonstrate in this book, management and management theory have strong foundations in systems science, and most specifically in a certain type of cybernetics. Note that I am not referring to the kind usually referred to as control theory or control engineering. What I am talking about is the cybernetics of truly complex systems, of organismic, self-organizing, and evolving systems. You might ask yourself whether a mundane activity such as managing really needs and justifies using such a complicated approach to provide a foundation. I think it does. Even by human standards, our world has become a very organized world in rather short time periods, a network of institutions so complex it can no longer be captured by human dimensions. This world is the result of human action, and the explosive growth in the number of managers at all hierarchical levels plays an increasingly important role. Much of our present world is a result of managerial action. But is it also a result of managerial intention? I am not sure which answer-yes or no-would imply greater problems. An essential part of this work is dedicated to finding out which of the answers is more accurate and what the consequences are. Today there are more people handling management tasks than ever before, and more people than ever are affected by and dependent on what managers do. As a result, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to tell what good or bad management means, who is a good and who is a bad manager, and what theory is best suited to solve present and future management issues. As mentioned before, after having completed the first three chapters of this book I focused on application-related issues. In 1977 I took on the leadership of Management Zentrum St. Gallen, an organization specializing in management training, development, and consulting. I was driven to find out whether the thoughts and concepts described here could be applied in practice,
Autorenporträt
Fredmund Malik ist ein vielfach ausgezeichneter Autor von Bestsellern, darunter der Klassiker "Führen Leisten Leben", der zu den 100 besten Managementbüchern aller Zeiten gehört. Zu seinen Auszeichnungen zählen das Ehrenkreuz der Republik Österreich für Wissenschaft und Kunst (2009), der Heinz-von-Foerster-Preis für Organisationskybernetik der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kybernetik (2010) und jüngst der Life Achievement Award der Weiterbildung (2018) für seine Verdienste in der Management-Lehre.
