Managers and subordinates

(The actual relationship between managers and subordinates), in other words, is far more like that beween the conductor of an orchestra and the instrumentalist than it is like the traditional superior / subordinate relationship. The superior in an organization employing knowledge workers cannot, as a rule, do the work of the supposed subordinate any more than the conductor of an orchestra can play the tuba. In turn, the knowledge worker is dependent on the superior to give directioon and, above all, to define that the "score" is for the entire organization, that is, what are in standards and values, performance and result. And just as an orchestra can sabotage event the ablest conductor -and certainly even the most autocratic one- a knowledge organization can easily sabotage even the ablest, let alone the most autocratic, superior.

The Essential Drucker
Peter F. Drucker
Collins Business (HarperCollins)