As I (like millions of other Americans) watched the successful splashdown of the Artemis II mission’s Orion capsule on April 10, 2026, I thought of my late colleague and friend, Joseph (Joe) A. Maciariello. Joe was the first Research Director of the Management as a Liberal Art Research Institute (MLARI); in fact, the Institute bears his name (the Joseph A. Maciariello Management as a Liberal Art Research Institute). Joe came to mind not only because of his own work on the first moon landing project, but also because of his passion for Drucker’s idea of the “spirit of performance”, which was embodied by the Artemis II crew.
Joe Maciariello is best known for his research work with Peter Drucker, particularly the publications The Daily Drucker (2004) and Management: Revised Edition (2008). But Joe had a different career long before this, including graduate research in economics with the renowned economist William Baumol and publications on cost control and systems management. After completing his undergraduate degree in business administration, Maciariello went to work for Hamilton Standard, which began as an aircraft propellor manufacturer in 1919 and later produced more advanced aerospace systems. Joe worked as a team member on several projects, including the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) that was part of the Lunar Module for the first Apollo Space Program in 1969. As they navigated the moon’s surface, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin used the PLSS to breathe, communicate with the home team on earth, and access circulated water (Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, n.d.).
In his last published work, Maciariello wrote about his experience with working on the PLSS team. The team was led by a project manager who had worked at Hamilton Standard while earning his engineering degree at a local college. While he did not have the advanced technical knowledge that the aerospace engineers, financial experts, or manufacturing professionals on the team had, he did know how to work with people, developing trust and genuine relationships with not only the employees, but with NASA personnel as well. The PLSS program effectively met its technical objectives and was consistently on schedule and within budget (Maciariello, 2023).
Maciariello describes the relationship between the members of the PLSS program team as embodying what Drucker referred to as the “spirit of performance.” This was the phrase Drucker used to describe the ability of organizations to allow individuals to develop their strengths to their fullest potential and achieve true excellence. Leaders who are able to achieve spirit of performance in their organizations insist on performance, focus on opportunities, not problems, align people decisions with organizational values, and require integrity from all team members (Drucker and Maciariello, 2008). Thomas V. Sanzone, a test engineer working on the PLSS team, had this to say about his experience:
“It was an amazing environment to be in. We did work a lot of hours. I was single at the time, and it really wasn’t like work…It was very intense, but there was so much passion around what we did. The fact that we had this incredible vision of landing a man on the moon in this decade and returning him safely to the earth – there was never any need to motivate anybody to remind people what we were there for. It was part of the DNA of everybody” (Sanzone, 2011).
Maciariello contrasts the PLSS team’s experience with that of the team tasked with developing the Environmental Control System (ECS) for the Apollo Lunar Module. The ECS provided the astronauts inside the Lunar Module with oxygen, water, and food. While both the PLSS and ECS teams had the same vision and access to technical talent, the ECS team was afflicted by cost and scheduling difficulties, and experienced numerous changes in leadership and staff. Maciariello points out that it was not team chemistry or personalities that made one program more effective than the other; it was the presence of Drucker’s spirit of performance that made the difference (Maciariello, 2023).
Projects like NASA’s Apollo lunar exploration are examples of what Drucker referred to as systems organizations. These are characterized by very weak central authority, replaced by a network of leaders drawn from various organizations. A variation on the team approach, systems organizations rely on alliances of specialists with diverse cultures, values and skills. Individuals working in these alliances must all assume individual and group responsibility for the success of the project. Without shared loyalties, vision, responsibilities, objectives, and values, projects led by systems organizations will likely fail (Maciariello and Linkletter, 2011). This is why, as Maciariello noted, the “spirit of performance” was so key to the success of the PLSS program.
In her interview after the Artemis II landing, team member Christina Koch shared her thoughts on what makes a crew:
“A crew is a group of people who are in it all the time no matter what, that is stroking together every minute with the same purpose. That is willing to sacrifice silently for each other. That gives grace. That holds accountable. A crew has the same cares and the same needs. And, a crew is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked. So, when we saw tiny earth, people asked our crew what impressions we had. And honestly, what struck me wasn’t necessarily just earth. It was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat, hanging undisturbingly in the universe. So, I may have not learned (I know I haven’t learned) everything that this journey has yet to teach me. But there’s one new thing I know. And that is, planet earth, you are a crew” (CBS News, 2026).
While we do not have all of the details of the multitude of teams that worked to make the Artemis II mission such a success, we can safely say that, at least in the case of the four astronauts who traveled to the far side of the moon, they experienced Drucker’s “spirit of performance.” It is telling that the crew nicknamed the Orion module “integrity.” Both Drucker and Maciariello emphasized that integrity of leadership was crucial to the “spirit of performance”: “The final proof of the sincerity and seriousness of an organization’s management is uncompromising emphasis on integrity of character” (Drucker and Maciariello, 2008, p. 287).
References
CBS News (April 11 2026). Artemis II crew speaks publicly for first time since successful moon mission [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/live/CO2Jb82rnp0?si=kP0DUIS46Ngc3q8r
Drucker, P.F. and Maciariello, J.A. (2008). Management: Revised edition. Harper Collins.
Maciariello, J.A. and Linkletter, K.E. (2011). Drucker’s lost art of management. McGraw Hill.
Maciariello, J.A. (2023). Principles: Directing human activity toward a higher goal. MLA Fund.
Sanzone, T.V. (2011). Interview by Rebecca Wright, Houston, TX, July 26, NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project.
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (n.d.) Portable Life System, Apollo. https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/portable-life-support-system-apollo/nasm_A19830164000
Photo credit: NASA
