The current economic crisis leads one to question the main objectives companies should be striving for. The possibilities range within a field of controversy between an absolute shareholder orientation and a governance compromise with the different company’s stakeholders. This workshop aims to reassess how far stakeholder relations in different companies prove the existence of a specific West German governance compromise from the 1950’s through the 1980’s. Did companies only have the possibility to meet their stakeholders’ expectations because of their financial scope or did stakeholder orientation rather emanate from attempts to insure the company’s long-term profitability?

Friday, June 25th 2010

Introduction: 2.00-2.45 p.m.

Introduction to the Stakeholder Relations Approach (Ute Engelen; Stephanie Hagemann, Bielefeld University)

Corporate Social Responsibility between Moral Expectations and Corporate Governance (David Gilgen, Bielefeld University)

I. Management, Labour Unions and Employees: 2.45-4.30 p.m.

En Route to the Audit Society? Information and Control by Means of Corporate Social Accounting in the 1970’s (Stephanie Hagemann, Bielefeld University)

Industrial Relations in the Automotive Industry of West Germany: A Comparative Analysis of Managing Board, Employees and Labour Union as Stakeholders (Anna R. Balzer, Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Commentary (Thomas Welskopp, Bielefeld University)

Discussion

Coffee break

 

II. Corporate Social Policies in Germany and France: 4.45-6.30 p.m.

Company Social Benefits in East and West Germany – Political Claims and Management Adaptation 1950-1989 (Rüdiger Gerlach, ZZF Potsdam)

Perceiving the Employees as Stakeholders. The Social Policy of Automobiles Peugeot 1944-1979 (Ute Engelen, Bielefeld University)

Commentary (Hervé Joly, Laboratoire de recherche historique Rhône-Alpes, Lyon 2)

Discussion

Dinner

Saturday, June 26th 2010

III. Proprietors and Employees: 9.00-10.45 a.m.

The Family Codex of the Haniel Clan as a Guarantee for Stakeholder Business Strategy? Board of Directors, Board of Management and Employees at the Gutehoffnungshütte Holding 1945-1975 (Benjamin Obermüller, Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Where Ants kill an Elephant: Employer-Employee Relations in the Cameroon Development Corporation 1946-2006 (Roland Ndille Ntongwe, University of Buea)

Commentary (Werner Abelshauser, Bielefeld University)

Discussion

Coffee break

IV. Production and Consumption: 11.15 a.m.-1.00 p.m.

Marketing without Marketing Research? Stollwerck’s Way to the Failure of the Year (Cathrin Kronenberg, University of Bonn)

The Build up of Mediating Companies come from Efficient Networks. The French Fashion Prediction Companies after WWII (Thierry Maillet, EHESS, Paris)

Commentary (Dieter Ziegler, Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Discussion

Lunch

Concluding Discussion: 2.00 – 3.00 p.m.

For further information and reservation please contact Ute Engelen or Stephanie Hagemann (Ute.Engelen@uni-bielefeld.de; Stephanie.Hagemann@uni-bielefeld.de).

We would be thankful for participants to register until June 18th.