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人员社会文化习惯的基本要素。结合社会、文化和商业历史的方法，本研究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、70年代初结束时，德国的协调市场经济模式及其强大的社团主义传统、等级制度和对公司的终身认同受到了压力。“1968年”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。该研究旨在检验一种假设，即在这一变革时期，德国公司及其高管在招聘政策、内部组织、职业发展、薪酬计划和工作习惯等方面经历了一个不断增强“竞争力”的过程。一方面，我们将分析职业指南、管理文献和管理人员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（拜耳公司和Bayerische motorren Werke）的案例研究来调查，公司内部的组织基础设施和竞争的日常实践如何以及在多大程度上发生了变化。