German Managers’ Organizational Know-how in the Interwar Period (1918–1939)

Abstract

This paper examines the state of the organizational knowledge, which guided large German companies during the interwar period of the twentieth century (1918-1939). From an organization design perspective and based on a case study-like exploration the article inquires whether at that time prevalent German organizational forms indicate deficiencies in know-how or result from the national contextual environment. This analysis considers the prevailing U. S. organizational structures. Country-specific profit seeking behavior shaped by cultural imprinting, institutional rules and personal traits is elaborated as influencing German and U. S. managers’ solution of organizational problems. Given the fragmentary state of the available data base the investigation pursues an approach which draws on the existing literature, especially on the records of contemporary witnesses and on published scholarly archival work. For the undertaken cross-country comparison the U. S. companies Du Pont and General Motors and the German companies I. G. Farben and Siemens are chosen. As the main result the study claims that during the interwar period German and U. S. managers widely shared the same body of organizational knowledge, but due to their profit-seeking behavior differed in its use.