The Coming of Managerial Capitalism: The United States

Course Number 1122

Professor Richard S. Tedlow
Fall, 29 Sessions
Exam

Career Focus

For MBAs who want to study the past and present to help guide their thinking about the future.

Educational Objectives

To provide an understanding of the development of modern management and business; to examine other institutions that have affected business activity, particularly government agencies and labor unions; and to analyze the evolution of changing attitudes toward American capitalism and their impact on the environment in which business leaders and other stakeholders operate.

Course Content and Organization

This course offers students the opportunity to explore the historical development of the most important economic institutions in the United States--its corporations, relevant government bodies, and labor unions--as the country became increasingly industrial, urban, and technologically advanced. The course covers changes in the strategy and structure of these institutions, especially the corporation, and shifts in the nature of competition among businesses. The course also investigates the development of the United States's distinctly "conservative" labor movement. We examine the rapid rise of labor unions against considerable odds and also their relative decline in recent years. Finally, the changing role of government in the country's economy is a focus of our attention. The course's perspective provides a broad understanding of the long-term impact of technological change, entrepreneurial innovation, and market evolution on U.S. business, managers, the work force, and government. The history of managerial capitalism in the United States offers students a comparative point of reference for considering capitalistic development and its long-term impact on material prosperity and collective perceptions of economic activity across time and national boundaries.

Through discussions, readings, films, and photographs, students will encounter several different units of analysis: the individual business leader, the worker, the company, the industry, and the country.

The course is divided into the following units:

I. Forging a National Economy
II. The Revolution in Transportation and Communication
III. The Revolution of Distribution and Production
IV. Changing Relations of the Work Force to the Work Place
V. The Role of Government in the Era of Big Business
VI. The Business Executive Faces the Future