Management research spans a large publication system, a broad occupational group, and empirical work linking management practices with workplace outcomes. The figures below describe the scale of the field, the work itself, leadership measures, and productivity evidence from named sources and specified periods.
Contents
- The scale of management scholarship
- Journal indicators across Academy publications
- Management occupations and pay
- What management work requires
- Leadership measurement across countries
- Management practices and productivity
The scale of management scholarship
The Academy of Management describes management as a field with about 400 journals producing about 12,000 published articles each year. That estimate gives a sense of the volume confronting researchers, students, and readers who need to locate useful evidence. The Academy also says that management scholarship is served by nine journals and related publications. Both figures come from Academy of Management publications and describe the field at the level of its publishing infrastructure.
The Academy says it has nearly 20,000 members from more than 120 countries, according to AMJ in 2020 and Beyond. Membership is therefore international in reach, while the field’s journal output is distributed across hundreds of outlets. The same source reports that the Academy of Management Journal receives about 1,500 original submissions per year.
These counts describe different parts of research activity. The estimate of 400 journals concerns the wider management field, while the nine-publication figure concerns the Academy’s own publication service. The submission count concerns one journal rather than the entire field, so it should not be treated as a total measure of management research demand.
The Academy’s governance is also quantifiable: its Board of Governors is comprised of 15 individuals, according to the Academy of Management Board of Governors information. This is an organizational statistic, not a measure of the number of researchers or publications.
Journal indicators across Academy publications
Impact factors and article influence scores are journal-level indicators. They are not direct measures of the quality of every article, nor are they interchangeable with the number of papers published. The Academy of Management journal pages and related Academy publications report the following values.
| Journal | Impact factor | Five-year impact factor | Article influence score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy of Management Review (AMR) | 13.9 | 19.3 | 10.19 |
| Academy of Management Annals | 16.5 | 26.9 | 13.88 |
| Academy of Management Learning & Education (AMLE) | 5.2 | 6.0 | 1.95 |
| Academy of Management Perspectives (AMP) | 5.7 | 8.3 | 3.61 |
| Academy of Management Discoveries (AMD) | 4.8 | 6.2 | 3.08 |
The Academy of Management Annals has the highest listed one-year impact factor, at 16.5, and the highest listed five-year impact factor, at 26.9. Its article influence score is 13.88. AMR has a one-year impact factor of 13.9, a five-year impact factor of 19.3, and an article influence score of 10.19.
The other three listed journals show a different indicator range. AMLE reports an impact factor of 5.2, a five-year impact factor of 6.0, and an article influence score of 1.95. AMP reports 5.7, 8.3, and 3.61 for those measures. AMD reports 4.8, 6.2, and 3.08. These values are retained as reported by the respective Academy journal pages.
The Academy of Management Journal receives about 1,500 original submissions annually, and AMJ in 2020 and Beyond reports a one-year impact factor of 7.2 and a five-year impact factor of 11.9. Those indicators belong to AMJ and should not be substituted for the values reported for AMR, Annals, AMLE, AMP, or AMD.
Management occupations and pay
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in its Management Occupations information, projects about 1.2 million openings in management occupations on average each year from 2023 to 2033. The median annual wage for management occupations was $116,880 in May 2023. These are U.S. figures, and the wage reference date is May 2023.
The occupational medians vary substantially. The highest listed 2023 median pays are $169,510 for computer and information systems managers, $165,370 for architectural and engineering managers, $157,740 for natural sciences managers, $156,580 for advertising, promotions, and marketing managers, and $156,100 for financial managers. Human resources managers had a median pay of $136,350, while compensation and benefits managers had $136,380.
| Management occupation | 2023 median annual pay |
|---|---|
| Computer and information systems managers | $169,510 |
| Architectural and engineering managers | $165,370 |
| Natural sciences managers | $157,740 |
| Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers | $156,580 |
| Financial managers | $156,100 |
| Sales managers | $135,160 |
| Training and development managers | $125,040 |
| Industrial production managers | $116,970 |
| Medical and health services managers | $110,680 |
| Administrative services and facilities managers | $104,900 |
Other BLS medians show the breadth of the category. Public relations and fundraising managers had $130,480, sales managers $135,160, and training and development managers $125,040. Top executives had $103,840, postsecondary education administrators $102,610, and transportation, storage, and distribution managers $99,200.
Several listed occupations had medians below $90,000. Emergency management directors had $83,960; farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers had $83,770; social and community service managers had $77,030; entertainment and recreation managers had $73,460; lodging managers had $65,360; food service managers had $63,060; property, real estate, and community association managers had $62,850; and preschool and childcare center directors had $54,290. Construction managers had $104,900, elementary, middle, and high school principals $103,460, and compensation and benefits managers $136,380.
What management work requires
The BLS Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS) factsheet reports several characteristics for management workers in 2025. Prior work experience was required for 97.0 percent of management workers, and supervising others was required for 94.7 percent. A bachelor’s degree was required for 51.5 percent, while on-the-job training was required for 53.4 percent.
The work setting also has measurable features. Telework was routinely allowed for 34.5 percent of management workers in 2025. The choice to sit or stand for tasks was available to 90.5 percent. Workers spent 74.8 percent of the workday sitting and 25.2 percent standing. Speaking was required for greater than 99.5 percent of management workers.
The ORS factsheet reports that work was controlled by people for 11.5 percent of management workers and self-paced for 88.5 percent. A quiet noise exposure was present for 23.4 percent. These measures describe reported job requirements and conditions in 2025; they do not establish that one condition causes another or that every management occupation has the same profile.
Taken together, the figures emphasize the combination of experience, coordination, communication, and autonomy in management work. They also show why a single occupational median or a single work requirement cannot represent the entire management category.
Leadership measurement across countries
The OECD management-and-leadership chapter in Government at a Glance 2025 is based on surveys in seven OECD countries and two accession countries. The 2024 survey covered Belgium, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the Slovak Republic, plus Bulgaria and Croatia.
The OECD Manager Index ranged from 66.6 in Denmark to 75.5 in Lithuania on a 0–100 scale. The OECD Senior Leadership Index ranged from 56.1 in Slovenia to 64.9 in Latvia. Both indices were rescaled from 0 to 100. The Manager Index is based on 13 items, while the Senior Leadership Index is based on 11 items. The survey used a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
Across the seven OECD countries surveyed, 62 percent of employees said their supervisor provides helpful feedback. Sixty-three percent said their supervisor recognises and rewards good performance. These two employee-response measures should be read separately from the country index ranges: they describe selected perceptions across the seven OECD countries, while the indices aggregate multiple items across the participating countries.
Management practices and productivity
The World Management Survey has evaluated management practices across 35 countries over the last 20 years, according to OECD material on promoting better career mobility. The early survey by Bloom and Van Reenen drew on 700 medium-sized firms in the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
OECD analysis reports that management practices explain between 10 percent and 23 percent of the interquartile range in productivity. In U.S. manufacturing plants, management practices account for around 20 percent of the cross-firm productivity spread. These are relationships reported in the cited OECD analyses, not a claim that management practices alone determine productivity.
The estimated gains associated with closing a management-share gap with the frontier differ by sector. If the average services firm closed its gap with the frontier, the productivity gain would be about 3.5 to 4.5 percent. The same frontier-gap closure implies about a 1 percent productivity gain in manufacturing. The sector distinction matters because the estimates are not a single economy-wide forecast.
The OECD analysis also identifies organizational and market factors associated with the long tail of badly managed firms. Low product-market competition and family ownership together explained around half of that long tail. The same two factors explained between one half of the France–Europe management gap and about one third of the United Kingdom–Europe management gap. These comparisons describe the specific gaps and relationships reported by the OECD sources; they do not convert them into a universal causal rule.
For business learning, the evidence connects three levels of inquiry: the research system that produces management knowledge, the occupations where management work is performed, and the organizational practices examined in productivity research. Keeping the source population, geography, measurement period, and indicator definition visible is essential when comparing figures across those levels.