Adapted from the upcoming 'The Wall Street Journal Guide to Management' by Alan Murray, published by Harper Business.

    What do managers do? One good answer to this question comes from the late Peter Drucker, whose name that stands out above all others in the century-long history of management studies.

    A native of Vienna, Austria, Mr. Drucker was an intellectual who worked as a journalist and studied economics. At some point in his studies he had an epiphany: economists, he realized, 'were interested in the behavior of commodities, while I was interested in the behavior of people.' That led him to, in effect, create the modern study of management.

    Mr. Drucker divided the job of the manager into five basic tasks. The manager, he wrote:

    1) Sets objectives. The manager sets goals for the group, and decides what work needs to be done to meet those goals.

    2) Organizes. The manager divides the work into manageable activities, and selects people to accomplish the tasks that need to be done.

    3) Motivates and communicates. The manager creates a team out of his people, through decisions on pay, placement, promotion, and through his communications with the team. Drucker also referred to this as the 'integrating' function of the manager.

    4) Measures. The manager establishes appropriate targets and yardsticks, and analyzes, appraises and interprets performance.

    5) Develops people. With the rise of the knowledge worker, this task has taken on added importance. In a knowledge economy, people are the company's most important asset, and it is up to the manager to develop that asset.

    While other management experts may use different words and focus on different aspects of these responsibilities, Mr. Drucker's basic description of the manager's job still holds.

    管理者要做什么？这个问题的一个好答案来自已故的彼得•德鲁克(Peter Drucker，又译杜拉克)，在管理学的百年历史上，他的光芒盖过了所有人。

    德鲁克出生于奥地利维也纳，是一名知识分子，曾作过记者，研究过经济学。后来他在研究中顿悟出：经济学家感兴趣的是商品的运行，而我则对人的行为感兴趣。这实际上引导他创建了现代管理学。

    德鲁克将管理者的工作分成了五项基本任务。他写道，管理者应该：

    1) 确定目标。管理者为团队制定目标，决定需要做哪些工作来实现目标。

    2) 组织协调。管理者将工作分成可管理的各个活动，并选择人员来完成所需的任务。

    3) 激励与沟通。管理者通过薪酬、安排和提升等决策手段，通过他与团队的沟通交流，从手下人中创建出一个团队。德鲁克还将这点称为是管理者的“整合”功能。

    4) 进行衡量。管理者确定适当的目标和标准，然后分析、评估和诠释业绩。

    5) 发展人员。随着知识工作者的增加，这个任务变得越来越重要。在知识经济中，人才是公司最为重要的资产，而开发这一资产则是管理者的职责。

    尽管其他管理专家可能会使用不同的词语，专注于这些职责的不同方面，但德鲁克对管理者工作的基本描述依然行之有效。