Russian management model and the problem of labor productivity: philosophical analysis

Basing on the theory of economist A. Prokhorov, the authors formulate empirical regularities that characterize the features of the «Russian management model»: the cluster/clan character of a typical Russian organization, poorly managed at the grass-roots level, and the cyclic pattern of the alternating «stagnant» and «mobilization» phases of development. These regularities appear to impede the increase in labor productivity at Russian enterprises. On the other hand, they allow the economy as a whole to function in a fairly effective way. The empirical material was studied by means of Dasein-analysis: specific features of Russian being and time were analyzed. The basic structures of Russian being, namely «maybe»-being and carelessness were revealed. The authors suggest that Russian being is being on the other side of the oppositions of existence and non-existence, thinking and madness, fear and fearlessness, death and immortality, traditional for the European consciousness. Russian being is ontologically ambivalent. European and Russian thinking also differ in understanding of the nature of time, expressed in the figures of a line and a circle, accordingly. For a European, the main mode of thinking is the future, which determines Europeans’ active efforts to change reality. For a Russian, the main mode of thinking is the past, «stuck» in the present and not allowing future to be realized. From the point of view of the phenomenological model, these features determine the cyclical nature of time of Russian being. The phenomenon of the «Russian miracle» corresponds to the Prokhorov’s «mobilization phase», which is an ontologically inconsistent and therefore always short-term attempt to «free up» time and go beyond the limits of everyday life by assuming responsibility for one’s own being. The authors analyze the possibilities of transforming of the traditional «Russian management model» to increase its productivity.