Competition as a vocation. The social and cultural history of West German managers after the postwar boom

竞争作为一种职业。

• 批准号: 321103162
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Ralph Jessen
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Neuere Geschichte
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2015-12-31 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/321103162?language=en
• 关键词: Competition; vocation.; social; cultural; history

This research project deals with competition and competitiveness as essential elements of the sociocultural habit of managers in the middle and upper strata of West German companies from the 1960s to the 1980s. Combining methods of social, cultural, and business history this study investigates the changing job culture of managers in an age of rapid transformation: When the European post-war boom came to an end in the late 1960s, early 1970s, the German model of a coordinated market economy with its strong tradition of corporatism, hierarchy, and lifelong identification with the company came under pressure. The cultural upheaval of '1968' as well as the basic trend towards 'postmodernist' pluralization, individualization, globalization, and increasing insecurity presumably also affected the career patterns, values, and everyday practices of German managers. The study sets out to examine the hypothesis that German companies and their executives during this period of change underwent a process of increasing 'competitivization' with respect to recruitment policy, internal organization, career advancement, salary schemes, and working habits. On the one hand we will analyze the semantics of competition in career guides, management literature, and autobiographical texts written by managers, and on the other hand we will use case studies from two companies (Bayer AG and Bayerische Motoren Werke) to investigate, how and to what degree the organizational infrastructure and everyday practices of competition within the companies did change.

本研究项目将竞争和竞争力作为 20 世纪 60 年代至 80 年代西德公司中上层管理者社会文化习惯的基本要素。这项研究结合了社会、文化和商业史的方法，调查了快速转型时代管理者工作文化的变化：当欧洲战后繁荣在 20 世纪 60 年代末、1970 年代初结束时，德国模式协调的市场经济以其强烈的社团主义、等级制度和对公司的终身认同的传统而面临压力。 “1968”的文化剧变以及“后现代主义”多元化、个性化、全球化和日益增加的不安全感的基本趋势可能也影响了德国管理者的职业模式、价值观和日常实践。该研究旨在检验这样一个假设：德国公司及其高管在这一变革时期在招聘政策、内部组织、职业发展、薪资计划和工作习惯方面经历了一个日益“竞争化”的过程。一方面，我们将分析职业指南、管理文献和管理者撰写的自传文本中的竞争语义，另一方面，我们将使用两家公司（拜耳股份公司和巴伐利亚电机工厂）的案例研究来调查，如何公司内部的组织基础设施和日常竞争实践发生了多大程度的变化。