Page 132 - The Drucker Lectures

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Knowledge Lecture III

1989

or what we pay people today, we’d better demand some re-
Fsponsibility from them. It’s morally corrupting to pay what
we pay and then treat them as little boys or girls. The responsi-
bility for their performance is on them—individually and where
there is teamwork. We need to go in and say, “What should this
organization hold you accountable for over the next 18 months?”
Get out of the trap of the annual appraisal that coincides with
your budget cycle. It’s a good idea to keep them separate. The
question is, “What should this organization hold you or this re-
search group of yours or this floor in the department store, this
selling floor—what should this organization hold you account-
able for by way of contribution and results?”
The first time you ask this, your people will find that this is
a very difficult question. They’ve never thought that way. Most
people, believe me, think in terms of work and not in terms of
results. Most people say, “I’m always the first one in the office
and the last one to go.” Well, that may be all right for the night
watchman, but for nobody else. What is the contribution?
In some cases, it is very hard to answer. I mean, if anybody
were to ask me—and with my dean sitting here, I shouldn’t talk
about such things—if I were to ask you what should the gradu-
ate school hold me accountable for, I would have a very hard
time answering it in terms of what happens to students. And yet

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