MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVE
In 1965, George S. Odiorne completed a textbook titled, Management by Objective.Just five years later, the same book was undergoing its tenth reprinting. The fact that the term “management by objective” has now become common nomenclature to company executives around the country attests to the success of Odiorne's literary efforts.
The Underlying Premises
Odiorne's concept of management by objective is based on an underlying premise that any system of management is better than no system at all. A secondary premise states that to be workable, any management system must bridge the gap between the theoretical and the practical. A third important premise establishes that the appraisal of managerial performance is not an activity autonomous from other activities of the firm. In other words, it regards the appraisal process as only one of several sub-systems operating within the confines of a goal-oriented management system.
Before proceeding into a discussion of the basic elements of the management-by-objective system several “statements of condition” seem warranted. Each of the following statements relates to the environmental conditions with which managers are confronted and establishes the setting for later determining the practical relevance of the management-byobjective system:
A. Because the economic environment within which agribusiness firms operate has changed so drastically in recent years, a whole new set of requirements has been placed on companies and their managers.
B. The preliminary step in the management-by-objective system dictates that managers identify, in some manner, organizational goals designed to meet the new requirements noted in A, above.
