Roelf van Niekerk, Bridget de Villiers, Yolandi-Eloïse Fontaine
Abstract
Peter Drucker (1909-2005), an Austrian-American writer, consultant, academic and mentor has been described as the founder of modern business management and the world’s most influential and prolific management thinker. His writings transformed business management and established it as an international discipline. Although Drucker died two decades ago, biographical and management literature continue to attract attention and invite research into his life and work. This psychobiography used the Greenhaus career development lens to investigate Drucker’s life history. Drucker was purposively selected as the subject due to his extraordinary contributions to management theory and practice. Primary and secondary documentary data was collected and interpreted during the study. The findings indicate remarkable alignment between the age categories proposed by the Greenhaus framework and Drucker’s career development stages. Although the findings relating to Drucker’s occupational and organisational choice stage are noteworthy, significant differences were noted only in terms of his late career stage. The study contributes to the legacy of Drucker, applies and verifies career development theory in practice, and underscores the importance of longitudinal studies in the career development of extraordinary individuals. Lastly, the study highlights the value of careerographies in business management research, theory development, practice, and training.