TY - JOUR TI - Phenomenology as the Epistemological and Methodological Basis of Management Sciences AU - Bombała, Bronisław TI - Phenomenology as the Epistemological and Methodological Basis of Management Sciences AB - Background. The beginning of the twenty-first century has been characterized by the crisis in a lot of enterprises caused mainly by a strong technocratic paradigm (instrumental rationality) existing in the world of business. Within that model of management one absolutizes the role of mathematics in building business strategies, instead of focusing on good leadership in one’s enterprise in order to increase its business potential. Hence, it seems that one should the technocratic model in education and managerial actions and introduce the personalistic-phenomenological model. Research aims. Proposing new methods of management (organizational development) in order to establish ontologic-ontic coherence of management in an organization, which should originate in the form of the application of Martin Heidegger’s ontology to management sciences, especially those that are used for diagnosis of social and ethics problems. Method. Close analysis of research of other scholars, such as Leszek Krzyżanowski, Janina Filek, Kazimierz Rogoziński demonstrates that there is a new paradigm of management needed (different than the technocratic model). Introducing the term “phenomenological lens” based on Martin Heidegger’s thoughts as a tool of analysis in business and for conducting case study research on the radical change of management styles in the Semco company – based on information from organizational documents of Semco and Ricardo Semler’s autobiography. Phenomenological analysis according to the “3i” formula confirms Semler’s business philosophy to be an excellent exemplification of good leadership. Key findings. Improving the dominant management model must be preceded by philosophical reflection, hence, by personalistic phenomenology that recognizes a human being as a conscious person experiencing oneself and others. Martin Heidegger’s, Max Scheler’s and Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka’s thoughts are the major inspiration in the creation of such a new paradigm of management. The phenomenological lens focusses on what is ontological and what is ontic, existential and existentic (in Heidegger’s sense) is the key concept of the phenomenology of management and, at the same time, a crucial instrument in the diagnosis and development of an organization since it allows for more accurate analysis of its structures – both from the philosophical (ontological) and scientific (ontic) perspective. For the phenomenological lens, as a method of analysis in contradiction to other tools of analysis, provides a view of an enterprise not from one, but from different perspectives. Hence, it provides information regarding a complex image of an enterprise, using it as a meta-method in business ensuring ontological-ontic coherence of an analyzed object, and, ipso facto, contributes to the development of a strategy for improvement of that object. VL - 2014 IS - Numer 13(1) PY - 2014 SN - 2449-8920 C1 - 2449-8939 SP - 150 EP - 172 UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/international-journal-of-contemporary-management/artykul/phenomenology-as-the-epistemological-and-methodological-basis-of-management-sciences