Introduction
Today we could see an increased importance of the sphere of management as one of the ways to guarantee the high efficiency of various processes and cooperation between departments. However, the significance of the field resulted in the emergence of numerous perspectives on its nature. Thus, revolving around the history of management and theories that were created to describe different peculiarities of this framework, Koontz admitted an increased number of various ideas and assumptions that complicated the understanding of the fundamental sense of this sphere.
For this reason, he suggested the concept of management theory jungle. It is a term used to describe the complexity and a big number of management theories. Since that time, the given concept has been applied to describe an extremely high diversity in approaches to the definition of management, its nature, and fundamental peculiarities of the theory. In other words, it could be applied to describe the complexity of the existing theoretic framework.
Analysis
Moreover, analyzing the nature of these new ideas that emerged, Koontz admits the great convergence in basic ideas suggested by researchers. He says that when distinguishing various schools, approaches, or perspectives on management theory, the fundamental premise that becomes obvious is that these ideas are not drawing from the peculiarities of the physical and cultural environment that surrounds us and creates the basis for the further evolution.
However, consideration of the factors mentioned above (environment and surroundings) is critical for the increased relevance of the theoretical framework and unification of all approaches that try to describe the basic ideas of management. Mainly due to the inability to consider these aspects the concept of management theory jungle could be applied to the existing theoretical framework.
At the same time, the concept of the management theory jungle includes some limitations that arise from its nature. Regarding the fact that it is applied to the diversity of ideas that appeared within the same theoretical framework, the concept could not be applied to cases when a structured approach to knowledge is used. In other words, Koontz says that there could hardly be any limits for analysis and research in the sphere of management as these will stop the progress and result in a decline.
Revolving around the nature of management and its future evolution, Koontz is sure that it is a unique sphere of science as it is not based on precedents and situations. For this reason, new ideas and perspectives will always appear and precondition the topicality of the concept of management theory jungle. That is why the need for the consideration of this theory becomes apparent as it will help to understand the existing diversity and distinguish the most important aspects of the current theoretical framework.
Analyzing the idea, one could also discover that the conception of the management theory jungle was created by Koontz from scratch because of the observed diversity of studies in the given sphere. At the same time, it could be generalized and applied to other files where a similar situation is observed. It demonstrates the universal character of the idea suggested by Koontz.
Conclusion
Finally, the topicality of the issue is evidenced by the fact that the new, revised version appeared in 1980. In general, it repeats some ideas; however, the author outlines eleven new approaches compared to six presented in the first version and touches upon important changes that happened to the world of management during this period of time.