ABSTRACT

In The New Society, Peter Drucker extended his previous works The Future of Industrial Man and The Concept of the Corporation into a systematic, organized analysis of the industrial society that emerged out of World War II. He analyzes large business enterprises, governments, labor unions, and the place of the individual within the social context of these institutions. Although written when the industrial society he describes was at its peak of productivity, Drucker's basic conceptual frame has well stood the test of time.Following publication of the first printing of The New Society, George G. Higgins wrote in Commonweal that Drucker has analyzed, as brilliantly as any modem writer, the problems of industrial relations in the individual company or 'enterprise.' He is thoroughly at home in economics, political science, industrial psychology, and industrial sociology, and has succeeded admirably in harmonizing the findings of all four disciplines and applying them meaningfully to the practical problems of the 'enterprise.' This well expresses contemporary critical opinion.Peter Drucker's new introduction places The New Society in a contemporary perspective and affirms its continual relevance to industry in the mid-1990s. Economists, political scientists, psychologists, and professionals in management and industry will find this seminal work a useful tool for understanding industry and society at large.

part First|55 pages

The Industrial Enterprise

chapter 1|8 pages

The New Social Order

chapter 2|11 pages

The Enterprise in Modern Society

chapter 3|14 pages

The Anatomy of Enterprise

chapter 4|12 pages

The Law of Avoiding Loss

chapter 5|4 pages

The Law of Higher Output

chapter 6|6 pages

Profitability and Performance

part Second|24 pages

The Problems of Industrial Order: The Economic Conflicts

chapter 7|7 pages

The Real Issue in the Wage Conflict

chapter 9|11 pages

The Hostility to Profit

part Third|52 pages

The Problems of Industrial Order: Management and Union

chapter 10|7 pages

Can Management Be a Legitimate Government?

chapter 11|8 pages

Can Unionism Survive?

chapter 12|15 pages

Union Needs and the Common Weal

chapter 13|17 pages

The Union Leader’s Dilemma

chapter 14|5 pages

The Split Allegiance within the Enterprise

part Fourth|51 pages

The Problems of An Industrial Order: The Plant Community

chapter 16|11 pages

The Demand for the Managerial Attitude

chapter 17|15 pages

Men at Work

chapter 18|8 pages

Is There Really a Lack of Opportunity?

chapter 19|5 pages

The Communications Gap

chapter 20|6 pages

Slot-Machine Man and Depression Shock

part Fifth|25 pages

The Problems of Industrial Order: The Management Function

chapter 21|10 pages

The Threefold Job of Management

chapter 22|7 pages

Why Managements Don’t Do their Job

chapter 24|3 pages

Is Bigness a Bar to Good Management?

part Sixth|34 pages

The Principles of Industrial Order: Exit the Proletarian

chapter 25|3 pages

Labor as a Capital Resource

chapter 26|14 pages

Predictable Income and Employment

chapter 27|8 pages

The Worker’s Stake in Profit

chapter 28|9 pages

The Threat of Unemployment

part Seventh|18 pages

The Principles of Industrial Order: The Federal Organization of Management

part Eighth|36 pages

The Principles of Industrial Order: The Self-Governing Plant Community

chapter 33|10 pages

“Management Must Manage”

chapter 34|9 pages

The Worker and His Plant Government

chapter 35|9 pages

Plant Self-Government and the Union

part Ninth|19 pages

The Principles of Industrial Order: The Labor Union as a Citizen

chapter 36|8 pages

Rational Wage Policy

chapter 37|7 pages

How Much Union Control Over the Citizen?

chapter 38|4 pages

When Strikes Become Unbearable

chapter |16 pages

Conclusion: A Free Industrial Society

chapter |6 pages

Epilogue to the 1962 Edition