Measuring management pathologies: the way to improve business performance

Abstract

The paper provides a new approach to the assessment of the management quality based on the evaluation of the management internal state and the managers' behaviour instead of calculating the effectiveness of the organisation's functioning. Management pathologies are considered to be 'the reasons for sustainable goal-unachievement' they do not allow the organisation to achieve its goals despite the efforts of management. The paper studies the concept 'management pathology', develops the initial list of pathologies to be used in further research. Thus, the paper presents a theoretical study of the concept 'management pathology' as an established managerial phenomenon and provides methodological basis: special tools in the form of scales to assess the status of each pathology in a particular organisation, a mechanism for interpreting the results, an integral indicator of the pathological nature of management. The developed tools were applied in various 405 organisations in Saint-Petersburg in order to estimate the level of management pathologies and to draw conclusions to be used in practice and in the future research.