The Transformation of the Soviet Enterprise and its Management: A Literature Review

Abstract

This article reviews literature on the transformation of the Soviet enterprise and its management. The review shows that Soviet management was much more multidimensional than previously assumed on the basis of official management descriptions. According to the official descriptions, the position of the Soviet manager mainly corresponded to that of the plant director who was responsible for the internal production processes of the factory. However, in reality, a Soviet manager's field of duties expanded from internal production management to struggling against the shortages of the centrally planned economy. Correspondingly, the review on transformation literature indicates that some of the empirical studies suffer from a rather inadequate methodology, as they tend to study enterprises and their management only at one point in particular time. Regardless of this, they sometimes draw very strong conclusions on transformation. In other words, several studies are based on a certain 'commonly accepted' view of Soviet management, instead of truly analysing the transformation taking place in post-Soviet companies. As previous empirical studies have not reached an unambiguous conclusion on the important topics linked to successful transformation, the article proposes some essential themes, which could increase understanding on the organisational and managerial transformation, and hence support the overall economic transformation process in the former Soviet Union.