Modern Trends In The Development Of Science Management

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the ratings of leading management researchers, published by the site thinkers50.com over the past eight years, the directions of management theory developed by researchers with the highest rating have been highlighted. It is shown that the main interest of leading researchers in management is focused on the issues of strategy and innovative development of modern organizations in a turbulent economic environment. The researchers who have received the highest integral rating for the last eight years are highlighted and references are given to their main works. The top five were Clayton Christensen, expert on innovation management, Harvard University; Chan Kim and René Moborne, experts on strategy and innovation management, professors at INSEAD, France; Michael Porter, one of the world's leading researchers in strategic management, Harvard University; Roger Martin, Professor of strategy at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Canada; Don Tapscot, Professor of Management, University of Toronto, Canada. It was noted that researchers who develop issues of organizational behavior, social psychology, leadership, and relevant in the conditions of continuous growth of the importance of psychological and social issues of personnel management of modern enterprises have a high rating. Leading researchers have noted the need to take into account the fact that modern enterprises operate in an information (digital) society, which allows them to set much more complex tasks for these organizations and requires increased attention to new dangers.

Keywords: Directions of management theoryinnovationsmanagement of modern organizationsmanagement professionalsratingspsychological and social issues of personnel management

Introduction

The task of managing modern organizations is both urgent and rather uncertain, since it does not rely on a well-developed formal theory. Theorists working with this task justify such a situation in a radically changed business environment over the past decades. Talking about a turbulent or even hyper-turbulent business environment appeals to the sympathy of aerodynamics and hydrodynamics, who are well aware that there are no reliable equations to describe the movement of airplanes or ships in such environments. Lacks or even the absence of formal theories, however, do not cancel the problem itself. Organizations require effective management, which, in turn, should ensure the creation and maintenance of a stable competitive position of the organization in this very turbulent environment.

Problem Statement

Lacks or even the absence of formal theories, however, do not cancel the problem of managing modern organizations. Organizations require effective management, which, in turn, should ensure the creation and maintenance of a stable competitive position of the organization in very turbulent environment.

Research Questions

What does world management science offer for this? What areas of management science are developing by modern researchers? What is most relevant for practitioners of commercial organizations?

Purpose of the Study

The aim of the work is to determine the most requested areas of research in the theory and practical application of modern science of management.

Research Methods

To answer this question, we use the opinion of the world's leading experts in the field of management, on which the Thinkers50 website (www.thinkers50.com), founded by two British scientists from the London Business School – Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer, is based. The site is described by its creators as «the world’s most reliable resource for identifying, ranking, and sharing the leading management ideas of our age. We are based in London, with partners and affiliations around the globe. Our ambition is to provide innovative access to ideas with the power to make the world a better place». Once every two years, this site publishes a rating of fifty outstanding management professionals. The rating is based on the opinion of a large number of internationally recognized experts in the field of management and, therefore, without undue modesty is positioned by the site owners as “the Oscars of Management Thinking”. Noting who and for what got the rating of this site over the past ten years, we can try to highlight some of the trends relevant to modern management. It should be noted that the choice of winners of the Thinkers50 rating is quite subjective. Since the list is made by Western experts, they include their colleagues there. The list always includes professors from Harvard University, and leading universities in the United States and Western Europe. The rest of the authors get on the list much less frequently. Thus, the rapid and effective development of the Chinese economy was reflected in the inclusion in the ranking of Chinese management practitioners. Let us hope that the inclusion in the rating of Russian researchers is a matter of the near future.

Table 01 presents the positions of researchers in the last four rankings, and sections of the science of management in which these researchers work. It is clear that innovation and strategy have the greatest interest among experts. Innovations of the last decades are considered as an imperative in the work of firms, without which it is impossible to achieve competitiveness. The problems of strategic management are caused by the very turbulence of the business environment mentioned above. Modern innovative projects require many years and huge costs for their implementation and, thus, the implementation of such projects becomes a strategic task for the organization, and in some cases the state as a whole. Let us recall such successful domestic projects as nuclear and space, which demanded the exertion of the forces of the entire industry of the USSR.

From Table 01 it can be seen that the smaller the position number of the researcher, the higher his rating. The sum of the position numbers (column 3) can show some integral position of the researcher, if the latter participated in all four ratings. However, since a number of young authors were included only in the latest ratings, we will correct their positions, adding 50 units for each missing rating. Thus, we will get some assessment of the generalized rating of both the authors and the sections of management in which these authors work.

Table 1 -
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Findings

Having ordered the positions obtained, we get a rating summarized by four years in the past eight years (Table 02 ).

Table 2 -
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From Table 02 it can be seen that at present the main interest of researchers is focused on the issues of innovation and the strategy of organizations. First of all, this refers to the researchers with the highest rating, to world-renowned authorities of the type of expert in the strategic management as Porter (1998a, 1998b, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2016) or innovation expert Christensen (Christensen, Dillon, & Allworth, 2012; Christensen, 2011, 2013, 2015; Christensen, Dillon, & Hall, 2016; Christensen, Dyer, & Gregersen, 2016) (both – professors of Harvard university). In addition, the periodically changing interest of leading researchers in the management of production systems and the adequate, preferably mathematical, theories of such complex, probabilistic and dynamic systems, and in the management of society is currently focused on society and personnel (Martin, 2007; Martin & Lafley, 2013; Martin & Osberg, 2015; Tapscott & Williams, 2008; Tapscott, 2008, 2014; Tapscott & Tapscott, 2016; Chan Kim & Mauborgne, 2014, 2017a, 2017b).

Turning to the domestic realities, we note that the crisis typical of the saddle between the fifth and sixth waves of Kondratyev (1989), which is experienced today by the world economy, is extremely hard for the Russian economy, as it turns out to be imposed on the not yet obsolete consequences of the catastrophe 90’s, associated with the collapse of the economy of the USSR and the devastating transition to market relations. This is one of the reasons for the lack of domestic researchers in thinkers50 ratings. This, in many respects practical discipline, as a management theory, is interested in the analysis of the management of successful organizations that occupy leading positions in the global economy. The Russian economy is positioned by Western experts as a weak economy of the military-industrial complex and extractive industries. According to indirect indicators, the military-industrial complex of Russia now shows good development dynamics and a high innovative level, but for obvious reasons it is closed for analysis. The development of the extractive industries to the detriment of the manufacturing and high-tech industries brings the country into the position of a raw materials appendage for developed countries. Even the attempt of some domestic authors to describe Russia as a “great energy power” is not comforting. The imperative of a high-tech innovation breakthrough in the domestic industry is blocked by a systemic crisis of secondary and higher vocational education, targeted investment, and insufficient cash financial and technological assets. The situation is aggravated by the isolation policy, primarily technological isolation, of Russia, which is coordinated by the developed countries of the West led by the United States.

Conclusion

Summing up our consideration, we can draw several conclusions.

1. Topics most relevant to modern science management are issues of effective long-term strategic management of modern enterprises, both global corporations with hundreds of thousands of employees, and high-tech startups with several employees who have doctoral degrees and global networks of such startups.

2. Equally relevant is the issue of managing the development, organization of production and market realization of innovative products - goods and services - in a turbulent economic environment peculiar to this type of activity.

3. High rankings are given to researchers who develop issues of organizational behavior, social psychology, and leadership, which are relevant in the context of the continuous growth of the importance of psychological and social issues of personnel management in modern enterprises.

4. Leading researchers note the need to take into account the fact that modern enterprises operate in an information (digital) society, which allows them to set much more complex tasks for these organizations and requires increased attention to new dangers.

6. All the above issues are acutely relevant for the domestic industry and the domestic economy and should be resolved by them if they claim a high competitive position in the global economy.

The solution of these tasks meets and will meet with strong opposition from the community of Western countries, which brings to mind the rather successful experience of independent development of high-tech industries of the USSR – “Nuclear Project”, “Space Project”, semiconductor electronics, computing technology – in a hostile international environment and in the conditions of “Iron Curtain”.

References

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Publication Date

02 April 2019

eBook ISBN

978-1-80296-058-7

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Future Academy

Volume

59

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Business, innovation, science, technology, society, organizational theory,organizational behaviour

Cite this article as:

Vasilyev, S. (2019). Modern Trends In The Development Of Science Management. In V. A. Trifonov (Ed.), Contemporary Issues of Economic Development of Russia: Challenges and Opportunities, vol 59. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 81-89). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.04.10