Management lag: can social management keep up with high technologies?

Abstract

The article is devoted to the social management challenges in the digital age. Much attention is paid to the consequences of the high technologies introduction in society, including the “management lag” phenomenon and the issue, whether a society with “smart” technologists absorbed by the ubiquitous digitalisation processes, has time to manage social processes effectively. The relevance of the issue is also determined by the events related with the shift to remote working for many enterprises in the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the world encountered the organising work challenge using information and communication technologies. The functioning of E-Government platforms as one of the innovations examples in social governance in the world is considered in the article through the prism of government programmes of a number of developed countries and relevant statistical data. The Russian and foreign statistical agencies materials, major organisations electronic databases, keeping high-tech development records: Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Boston Consulting Group, United Nations, World Bank, Russian Government, etc., were used for the analysis. It has been concluded that contemporary high-tech society is forced to look for new, efficient governance methods. The management system must be updated to simultaneously meet the social reality demands and keep up with digital changes. Management decision-making processes in an electronic digital society are in the transformation process, and the high technology implementation isues in society are being debated in the scientific community. The digitalisation speed and scale are faster than cultural and managerial development, which is a threat to social progress.