Drucker & New Global Workforce

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Managing The New Global Workforce. The Demands of a Globalized, Dynamic and Multicultural World
Peter Drucker, a foundational management educator, consultant and writer, was one of the first to write about the changing workforce, according to Harvard Business Review. Drucker noted the changing demographic issues facing organizations, including the "rapid shrinkage in both the numbers and proportion of young people in country after country around and world" (Erickson, 2008) and the need for non-traditional work teams (e.g., flexible schedules, virtual teams). Drucker (2001) saw the global workforce changing to one of part time workers, in reaction to changes in the population, and greater emphasis on immigration, as young people become more valuable workers. Drucker (1998) suggested that the workforce would be composed of knowledge workers who would predominantly manage themselves, overseen by some sort of "home base" that would manage talent. The "home base" function would replace the more traditional human resource department and place talent where it was needed, based on the time of need. Traditional line manages would run teams of employees, based on the needs of the time. In addition, Drucker (2001) posited that multinational corporations would be held together by strategy, rather than defined by ownership. Drucker foresaw a global marketplace for business, driven by talent more than nationality. Drucker (2007) wrote, "No institution can hope to survive, let alone succeed, unless it measures up to the standards set by the leaders in its field, anyplace in the world." In addition, Drucker forecasted that consumers would also change, and the world would become a global shopping center (Drucker, 1969). Drucker suggested that the Internet would work to aid workers, as a method of information, and consumers, as a source of knowledge of the global availability of products (Drucker, 2001). This reliance on information technology would usher in a "knowledge economy" (Drucker, 2001) that relies on knowledge workers much more than the manual workers of the past. Drucker (2001) saw the role of management as one of balancing the conflicting needs for short and long term results, and the constituencies of customers, shareholders and knowledge workers.
Drucker's views on the new global workforce is different than Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014), who focus on the changing world, by describing the increased foreign competition, the need to manage people form different cultures, and the importance of the multicultural leader. Drucker looked at the situation much more globally, and predicted global workforces beyond national changes by identifying ...