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Idiosyncrasy, heterogeneity and evolution of managerial styles in contemporary Russia

Evgeniya Balabanova (Department of Management, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia)
Azer Efendiev (Department of Management, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia)
Mats Ehrnrooth (Department of Management and Organization, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland)
Alexei Koveshnikov (Department of Management and Organization, Hanken School of Economics Helsinki, Finland)

Baltic Journal of Management

ISSN: 1746-5265

Article publication date: 5 January 2015

2195

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine managerial styles of Russian managers in the context of institutional and economic environment of contemporary Russia.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on a sample of 482 line and middle managers covering eight geographic regions, 14 industries and 80 organizations in Russia.

Findings

Employing factor and cluster analyses the paper identifies four distinct managerial styles: paternalistic, exploitative, performance oriented and passive. In addition, the paper analyzes a number of contingent characteristics of these typological Russian managers such as their age, career development, regional, industrial and organizational presence.

Originality/value

The analysis enriches the understanding of managerial style idiosyncrasy, heterogeneity and evolution in Russia. The identified plurality of managerial styles, differentially related to a number of contingency variables, indicates that it pays off for western companies to avoid using stereotypical ideas when dealing with their Russian counterparts and employ conscious strategies when recruiting managers to their Russian operations instead.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the National Research University – Higher School of Economics (HSE) through the Basic Research Program. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the paper.

Citation

Balabanova, E., Efendiev, A., Ehrnrooth, M. and Koveshnikov, A. (2015), "Idiosyncrasy, heterogeneity and evolution of managerial styles in contemporary Russia", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 2-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-03-2014-0039

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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