Research Area A A26 The Transculture of Capitalism

Project Leader: Markus Pohlmann
Project Members: Stefan Bär, Volker Helbig, Julian Klinkhammer, Sang-hui Nam

The new spirit of capitalism is transcultural by origin. It is constituted by three waves of management concepts that shaped ideas of a newly principled way of life (i.e. the generalization of the idea of an entrepreneurial self), a new notion of organization (i.e. the idea of lean management), and a new form of state institutions (i.e. the idea of the new public management). We investigated how these ideas translate into collective patterns of interpretation (i.e. collective scripts), how this translation is related to local contexts and if it constitutes new rules of conduct for actors. By analyzing career patterns and carrying out in-depth interviews with the leaders of big enterprises (mainly industrial companies) and major hospitals in Asia and Europe (Japan and South Korea, Germany, Austria and Switzerland), we clarified that “transnationality” and “globalization” does not necessarily lead to the emergence of new spirit of Capitalism – i.e. convergence at the level of organizations as well as the neoliberalization of the economic thinking. This outcome indicates that one should pay more attention to the transnational dynamics and transcultural interactions that explain how the capitalist sprit emerges and transforms within historical flows of ideas and practices.

Sub project 1: Globalization and new spirit of Capitalism in Asia and Europe

This research program focused on the impact of globalization on the corporation, and especially on industrial companies. A common theme of mainstream globalization literature is that the number of transnational corporations increases, and that this process drives the emergence of a managerial “world class” or global elites. The global elites are supposed to push the neoliberal transformation of the world economy forward. This thesis culminated in the idea of a new spirit of capitalism. The research program put the thesis of a global economic elite to the test, by examining the empirical career patterns and action orientations of top managers, who lead the big industrial corporations of the world’s largest economies today.

Based upon these research questions, we delineated the development of enterprises and economies through firsthand accounts. At the same time, we examined the social origin of top managers, their strategic orientations, and what differences they see between younger and older generations of executive leadership. As a consequence, our findings and analyses indicated that globalization has an impact on top management in Asia and Europe in a various form. This result demonstrated the importance of paying attention to traditions, practices and particularities that prevail despite global trends and competition.

Sub project 2: Hospital Management – New Organizational and Managerial Approaches in International Comparison

The second sub-research project was ‘Hospital Management – New organizational and managerial approaches in international comparison’. The project focused on administrative and medical directors of big hospitals in different countries. We investigated what kind of organizational and management concepts they adopt and use in their management practice. The project asked whether similar methods that became popular in the context of industrial management gain currency in different countries, or to what extent they are rejected or adapted to the specific needs of hospitals. Specifically, we raised research questions such as whether and how far pathways adjust or paradigms shift, which groups of actors carry these developments, and what concepts are adopted and which ones prevail in their new environment.

Our findings showed that the economization of organization in the health care sector is generally prevalent in Asia and Europe. However, the economic thinking and adaptation of the management concepts indicate divergence not convergence. The result proves that one has to pay attention to the different organizational and institutional foundations, the legacy of institutions and the interactions between different actors and institutions in different social, economic and cultural settings in this field.