Well before his death, Drucker had already become a legend. Over his 95 prolific years, he had been a true Renaissance man, a teacher of religion, philosophy, political science. But his most important contribution, clearly, was in business. What John Keynes is to economic, Drucker is to management.
In the 1980s, he began to have grave doubts about business and even capitalism itself. He no longer saw the corporation as an ideal space to create community. In fact, he saw nearly the opposite: a place where self-interest had triumphed over the egalitarian principles he long championed. In both his writings and speeches, Drucker emerged as one of Corporate America's most important critics. When conglomerates were the rage, he preached against reckless mergers and acquisitions. When executives were engaged in empire-building, he argued against excess staff and the inefficiencies of numerous "assistants to."
In a 1984 essay he persuasively argued that CEO pay had rocketed out of control and implored boards to hold CEO compensation to no more than 20 times what the rank and file made. What particularly enraged him was the tendency of corporate managers to reap massive earnings while firing thousands of their workers. "This is morally and socially unforgivable," wrote Drucker, "and we will pay a heavy price for it."
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彼得 德魯克在世時就已成爲傳奇人物。他以95歲高齡辭世，一生著作頗豐，涉略廣泛，在宗教、哲學以及政治學等領域都堪爲人師。然而他最重要的成就無疑還是在商業領域。德魯克對管理學貢獻巨大，其價值正如約翰.凱恩斯之於經濟學。
二十世紀八十年代起，他開始對企業乃至資本主義制度本身產生了深深的懷疑。他不再認爲公司是創造和諧氛圍的理想場所，事實上，他所目睹的與此恰恰相反，公司里人人各爲其利，而這與他一直倡導的平等原則相違背。無論是在著作還是演講中，德魯克都旗幟鮮明，成爲美國式企業制度最重要的批判者之一。適逢大財團紛紛涌現，他不厭其煩，盡數此類瘋狂兼併和收購的弊端。當企業經理人們埋頭建造商業帝國時，他指出冗員過多和機構臃腫會造成效率低下，危害不淺。
1984 年，他在一篇文章中有力地說明企業首席行政官的薪酬之高已近失控，並強烈建議各公司的'董事會將其首席執行官的報酬控制在普通員工的二十倍以內。他認爲，企業高管動輒數百萬美元的離職補償金，使他們本末倒置，只管個人利益。最使他氣憤的是公司經理人一方面自己收入豐厚，另一方面卻在大批裁員。德魯克寫道，“無論是在道德層面，還是對於社會而言，這都是無法原諒的，我們會爲此付出沉重的代價。”
