Structural-functional method of analysing concepts and models of modern management
The structural-functional method of modern management concepts and models is a description and explanation of their development, which examines its elements within a single whole, in the context of which individual and phenomena of the management paradigm perform certain functions. According to the structural-functional method, the consideration of concepts and models of modern management should achieve a certain integrity, as it has a complex structure. Each element of this structure performs specific functions that meet the needs of the system. The activity of the elements of the management paradigm system is programmed by the overall structural integrity, positions and roles performed.
To analyse the concepts and models of modern management, a cybernetic approach is also used, in the context of which such structural components as input parameters are distinguished. At the input of the system at any given time, the management entity is faced with a limited set of material, labour and financial resources; the output of the system is a set of consumer values and services that are functionally dependent on the input parameters.
The optimum is achieved when the maximum and minimum of the objective function coincide, when the economic system is in a stable state of management and reaches homeostatic equilibrium. In this state, sustainable development reaches the maximum of its efficiency limit, the most productive mode of economic growth. Therefore, the main task of the management paradigm is to search for and implement management influences that, in the unity of external and internal factors, ensure the homeostatic status of the system’s functioning and development.
The norms, united into institutions that have a structure and functions, are aimed at achieving the stability of the management paradigm. The goal of the structural-functional method is to quantify the changes to which the system can adapt to its basic functional responsibilities, which will help to preserve and regulate the system.
The structural-functional method of concepts and models of modern management is based on a review of the economic system of society as an integral system with interdependent elements, each element of which performs certain functions, ensuring their balance.
The structural-functional method includes the study of functional dependencies of the elements of the economic system, the unity of government institutions, the compliance of their action (functioning) with the needs of economic entities, and the identification of how the needs for the formation of an adequate paradigm for the sustainable development of industrial enterprises and their adaptation to a changing environment are realised.
Institutional method of analysing concepts and models of modern management
Until the early twentieth century, along with the normative method, the institutional method dominated in management science, and today it occupies a priority position. It focuses on the study of institutions through which management activities are carried out, associated with the desire to identify legal norms, analyse the basic laws of management, and the meaning of the existence of an organisation as an integral entity.
This method was developed by S.L. Montesquieu, J. Locke, E. Burke, T. Jefferson. This approach focuses on managerial institutions, the analysis of which is based on the established socially rooted forms. These forms, or institutions, on the one hand, are a logical continuation and consolidation of social relations and norms, and on the other hand, they are intended to bring a stabilising element to governance. The institutional method focuses on the study of institutions through which political, economic, and managerial activities are carried out and through which managerial activities are regulated. The institutional method is necessary to identify a holistic view of how the institutional subsystem affects the functioning of the management system as a whole.
Anthropological method of analysing concepts and models of modern management
The anthropological method is in many respects the opposite of the sociological method and is based on the fact that management is not conditioned by social factors, but by the nature of man as a generic being with basic needs – food, clothing, security, and freedom. Analysing managerial phenomena, the anthropological method is focused on the study of irrational, instinctive, biological motivation of management, which is conditioned by human nature.
The anthropological approach dates back to Aristotle in his vision of the sources of management in the collective essence of man. This approach is based on human nature, is widely used in the analysis of mechanisms, institutions of power and social control, and is based mainly on the problems of adaptation and transformation of traditional control mechanisms in the transition to modern economic systems. The anthropological method provides the key to studying such problems as the relationship between human type (stable traits of intelligence and psyche) and the influence of national character on the management process and vice versa.
Today, the anthropological method is based primarily on the following principles:
1) constancy, invariance of fundamental generic qualities of a human being as a biological, social, rational (spiritual) being, which originally possesses will;
2) the universality of man, the unity of the human race regardless of ethnic, racial, social, geographical and other differences;
3) the inalienability of natural human rights, their priority over society and the state.
With regard to the analysis of managerial problems, the anthropological approach requires not only studying the influence of the social environment on rational motivation, but also identifying irrational, instinctive, biological and other motives caused by human nature. The task of this approach is to study the impact of the social environment and the rational influence of people on the management system, as well as the need to influence it with biological, instinctive and other motives of human behaviour.
Substantive (ontological) method of analysing concepts and models of modern management
The substantive (ontological) method involves identifying the fundamental basis of the world’s existence, the relationship of domination and subordination in various manifestations. Among the huge number of definitions of management, the characteristics of the interaction between power and management dominate. The definition of the ontological method can be formulated by considering the very definition of ontology as a philosophical category.
Any philosophy is, first and foremost, a generalised picture of the world, encompassing with its knowledge the most important knowledge about the world of its era. Ontology, as one of the main components of philosophical and managerial knowledge, represents an extrapolation of psychophysiological dualism to the world, seeing it as a composition of substances of different nature. Ontology is the science of being, its forms, fundamental principles, the most general definitions and categories of existence, the interaction of the surrounding world and human consciousness. Substance is the essence of what underlies it, meaning the fundamental basis of everything that exists, the internal unity and diversity of specific things, events, phenomena and processes through which the world, existence, and human beings exist.
Normative and value-based method of analysing concepts and models of modern management
Since ancient times, managerial thought has been based on a normative-value approach, which has not lost its significance today. The normative-value method involves the assessment of political, economic, and managerial phenomena in terms of the ethical values of the common good, justice, and freedom, which are the basis for sustainable development.
The disadvantages of the normative-value method are the relativity of value judgements, which depend on a person’s worldview, social status and individual characteristics. The normative-value method is valuable to us because it brings ethical dimensions to management science. It implies clarifying the significance of management phenomena for society and the individual, assessing them in terms of the common good, justice, freedom, respect for human dignity and other universal humanistic values, which are the basis of humanistic management.
The normative-value method focuses on the development of the ideal of management activity, ways of its practical implementation and requires appealing to the proper and desirable, to ethical values and norms and forming management institutions in accordance with them. The normative-value method has been criticised by scholars for idealising managerial activity, its detachment from reality, and the speculative nature of many managerial projects and designs. The main disadvantage of this method is the relativity and relativity of value judgements, their dependence on the worldview, social status and individual characteristics of a person. However, despite some limitations, the normative-value method is necessary for management science, as it adds an ethical and human dimension to management, introduces a moral element into management and serves as the basis for further stable development.