Drucker Time Management Strategic Management the Importance

Drucker Time Management

Strategic management

The importance of time management: Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker made the common cliche that 'time is money' an integral part of his managerial philosophy. The management of time is the key to an enterprise's effectiveness: manage time and all things will follow, believed Drucker, including money. While managers often keep strict watch over an organization's profitability, they often fail to give equal scrutiny to how they manage their own time. "Drucker suggested managers measure how they spend their time and compare that with how they should be spending it, then make the requisite modifications. His overarching question: 'What needs to be done right now for the business'" (Buchanan 2009).

Time is a scare resource, much like money, but it is taken for granted. Effective time management ensures that an organization is using the rest of its resources wisely. Poor time management is also a symptom as well as a cause of problems -- it indicates a lack of planning and careful thought. Organizations must be goal-directed and ineffective time management indicates that leaders are uncertain about where the organization should be headed in terms of its planning and development.

Drucker's principles of time management are thus founded upon the need to record, manage, and consolidate one's activities in the pursuit of objectives. Encouraging workers to 'look busy' is anathema to real productivity. Almost anyone who has worked a job in a retail organization can recall one in which he or she was required to 'make work' -- usually involving half-heartedly rearranging shelves, cleaning windows, sweeping -- rather than stand around. Instead of slave-driving employees to constantly fill time to earn their paychecks, however, a good manager is mindful of the financial risks of overstaffing. A lean organization can maneuver better, and there is less red tape and personality conflict when staffing is kept at a minimum and required to be fully accountable for the time they spend. Staff are also more productive when they know what they do is essential (Drucker 2006).

Time management and accountability does not necessarily mean that an organization must adhere to the standard protocols of measuring the output of employees. For example, the electronics company Best Buy has instituted something called a 'Results Only Work Environment.' In the ROWE model, managers are judged solely by output, not by how many hours they 'clock in' at the organization. "In a ROWE, each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done" (Ferris 2008). Workers must be effective time managers, because they are not paid for 'filling time,' they are paid for meeting goals.