Trying to Understand Management Models

In the previous chapters a number of management models have been presented. What ties them together is the fact that companies have created them in order to address present and future organisational challenges. We have chosen to show them as they are, with as much as possible respect to differences in cultural, contextual and linguistic backgrounds. Now that this volume comes to a close, this final chapter will be used to shed some light on the nature of the models presented previously. We therefore set out to explore their character and functionality, thus enabling to identify what these models have in common but also how they can be distinguished from each other. Our aim of this exploration is to grasp the more fundamental, conceptual and theoretical aspects of management models. This exploration is guided by a number of questions. How can management models be classified and categorised? What principles are underpinning? What role do these models play in organisations and what are different functions they might have? All these questions drill down to: “which theoretical perspectives can be distilled when analysing the models presented in this volume?” For sure we will not be able to elaborate all these questions in detail although we do hope that the results will establish the foundations for further investigation – be it more theoretical or more practical.