ABSTRACT
Management by objectives requires major effort and special instruments. For in the business enterprise, managers are not automatically directed toward a common goal. Each manager, from the “big boss” down to the production foreman or the chief clerk, needs clearly spelled-out objectives. Those objectives should lay out what performance the man’s own managerial unit is supposed to produce. Even if management by objectives was not necessary to give the enterprise the unity of direction and effort of a management team, it would be necessary to make possible management by self-control. Indeed, one of the major contributions of management by objectives is that it enables us to substitute management by self-control for management by domination. What the business enterprise needs is a principle of management that will give full scope to individual strength and responsibility, and at the same time give common direction of vision and effort, establish team work, and harmonize the goals of the individual with the commonweal.
