Managing

Preface

In 1973 I published The Nature of Managerial Work, based on my doctoral dissertation—a study of a week in the working lives of five chief executives. I claimed in the preface that, as a kid, I always wondered what my father, the president of a small manufacturing firm, did at the office. I found out some, but not enough.

So six years ago, thirty years later, I decided to revisit the subject, determined to find out what my wife, a manager in the world of telecommunications, did at the office. Not that I believed managing had changed; I changed, or at least I hope so. (Whoever reads both books can be the judge of what I learned over the years.)

This time I based the book on a day I had spent in the working lives of twenty-nine managers, ...