Breakthroughs in technology and the open overpowering complexity of the corporate structure have spawned a new, versatile breed of managers. Known as planners, their business is change and their eyes must always be focussed on the big picture. Here is a profile of the job and the men who must be part seers, part detective-cost accountants, part sociologists to fill it.
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References
1.
This estimate assumes that all variables are related to each other in one relationship, “A” is a certain function of “D,” regardless of how many intervening variables there may be. Thus 50 and 70 represent the number of relationships. The estimate is conservative in that “A” may well be related to “D” in two different ways. Thus the number of relationships between all parts of the firm could conceivably be, for the 50 part system, somewhere between a minimum of 50! and a maximum of (50! − 49! − 45! … 2!).
2.
Actually, combining long-range planning with short-range planning, in the same job, has certain motivational disadvantages. Nevertheless, many companies simply may not be able to afford the luxury of separating the two by creating an additional new executive position.
3.
For a recent book which clarifies the reasons for the trend toward more planning, in U. S. society, see HeilbronerRobert L., The Future as History, New York. Harper & Brothers, 1960.
4.
The merger and acquisition movement, as a trend in U.S. organization of production, is evidenced also by such companies as Botany, U. S. Hoffman, H. K. Porter, U. S. Industries, George W. Helme Co., and many others. The latter company, originally producing snuff products, has acquired divisions now producing 32 kinds of snuff products sold in 15 types of packages, the Bachman line of bakery products, 16 kinds of nuts in 45 types of packages, and a line of 16 different pretzel products.
5.
For further substantiation of this reasoning, see SummerC. E., “The Managerial Mind,”Harvard Business Review, January 1959.
6.
For a description of the planning process, in terms of group dynamics, see LippittRonald, The Dynamics of Planned Change, New York, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1958.
7.
An appreciation for the real complexity of large organizations, and the two tendencies mentioned, can be had from MertonRobert, Social Theory and Social Structure, Glencoe, Illinois, The Free Press, 1943.
8.
For a penetrating study of this question, see HookSidney, The Hero in History, Boston, Beacon Press, 1953, especially pp. 113–118 and 153–154.
9.
This term, initiated by the psychologist Carl Rogers, implies a relatively broad kind of knowledge, rather than a “scientific,” “knowledge about,” these techniques. Someone, of course, must have this kind of knowledge also. But to say that all planners must have detailed specializations in operations research is equivalent to saying that all presidents should be accountants.
