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Management Aims and Development Needs in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Albert Lauterbach
Albert Lauterbach
Affiliation:
Visiting Professor, University of Wisconsin, School of Commerce
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Abstract

As Latin American businessmen assess their historical experience, how do they characterize their progress and future?

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , Winter 1965 , pp. 557 - 588
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1965

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References

1 “In the Latin American culture, business is a part of the total scheme of things: It is part of the family, of the compadre relation, of friendships, and of the Church. Business is done among friends in a leisurely and understanding way. Material success is at the bottom of the scale. First of all comes the protection of the family, the compadres, the friends.” Tannenbaum, Frank, Ten Keys to Latin America (New York, 1963), p. 129.Google Scholar

2 Compare the typology of managerial elites, including patrimonial, political, and professional management, as presented by Harbison, F. and Myers, Ch. A., Management in the Industrial World (New York, 1959), chap. 4.Google Scholar Also Redlich, Fritz, “Business Leadership: Diverse Origins and Variant Forms,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, vol. VI (April, 1958)Google Scholar.

3 See United Nations, Management of Industrial Enterprises in Underdeveloped Countries (New York, 1958), pp. 4 ff.Google Scholar Also Professor Cochran's findings on factors in Puerto Rican business: Cochran, Thomas C., The Puerto Rican Businessman: A Study in Cultural Change (Philadelphia, 1959), chap. IV.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Lauterbach, Albert, Managerial Attitudes in Chile. Instituto de Economía, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, 1961.Google Scholar Also “Managerial Attitudes and Economic Development,” Kyklos, 1962/2 and, “Acritudes Empresariales y el Desarrollo Económico,” Revista de Economía Latinoamericana, Caracas, Venezuela, June, 1961, Compare the author's book, Man, Motives, and Money (2nd ed., Ithaca, N.Y., 1959), chaps. 1 and 2. The earlier phase of the study was aided by the Fulbright Administration and the Social Science Research Council. The latter phase was carried out under a Brookings Research Professorship. The author is, of course, solely responsible for the content of this paper. His book Enterprise in Latin America (Ithaca, 1966) is in press.

5 Compare Hoselitz, Bert F., “Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth,” in Sociological Aspects of Economic Growth (Glencoe, 1960).Google Scholar Bendix' interesting discussion, based on the industrial history of England, the U.S., and Russia, of a “change from entrepreneurial to managerial ideologies” seems to have very limited applications to Latin America thus far. Bendix, Reinhard, Work and Authority in Industry (New York, 1956)Google Scholar, esp. chaps. 1 and 4.

6 Ivan Lansberg Henríquez, President of Asociación Venezolana de Ejecutivos, interview in EL NACIONAL, Caracas, December 18, 1962, and paper on Management: An Idea in Action,” mimeo., February, 1963.

7 Compare Fusfeld, Darnel R., “Heterogony of Entrepreneurial Goals,” Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, vol. 9 (October, 1956)Google Scholar.

8 Compare Echavarría, José Medina, Consideraciones Sociológicas Sobre el Desarrollo Económico de América Latina, United Nations Economic and Social Council — UNESCO, Santiago, 1962 (mimeo.), pp. 32ff.Google Scholar, section on “Paternalism, Anxiety, and Impersonal Organization.”

9 An Argentinian management expert comments: “We all know from experience what inefficiency is caused by the obstructionism of the businessman toward the release of certain data because he is afraid of competition, and what disastrous results come from bureaucratic carelessness which mistrusts the statements of businessmen and in many cases acts as judge with insufficient knowledge of situations or under selfish pressure from rival groups — groups which, because of their respective backgrounds, are only capable of seeing immediate effects without being interested in the implications of any measure which they demand in the firm belief that it is just.” Llamazares, Juan, Empresas Modernas: Ensayos Sobre Dirección y Organización (Buenos Aires, 1955), p. 16.Google Scholar

10 “The owner seeks essentially to make a living rather than maximize profits.” “Use of Accounting as an Aid to Management in Underdeveloped Countries,” Konson, George, Industrialization and Productivity, Bulletin #1, United Nations, 1958, p. 60.Google Scholar

11 Compare Baer, Werner, “Brazil: Inflation and Economic Efficiency,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, vol. XI (July, 1963), esp. pp. 404 ff.Google Scholar

12 Compare Vernon, Raymond, The Dilemma of Mexico's Development (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), esp. chap. 6.Google Scholar

13 “Latin America no longer lives in the era of the Schumpeterian innovator, nor can economic development be left to the impulses of the entrepreneur, the public official, or the empirical politician. If growth is to be speeded up, it must also be recognized quite consciously that the educational system and the prevailing forms of social organization — labor unions, producers' groupings, public administration proper, and others — must create managerial or executive elements which are professionally trained, both in the private and in the public sectors, in order to assume the responsibilities and to take the decisions which are necessary for economic progress.” Urquidi, Victor L., Viabilidad Económica de América Latina (Mexico, 1962), p. 85.Google Scholar

14 Naciones Unidas, Comisión Económica para América Latina, El Empresario Industrial en America Latina, Part 2 (Brazil), p, 66. Mimeo., Santiago, Chile, 1963. (Other parts of this interview study deal with Argentina, Chile, and Colombia.) Compare the following statement from Eugenio Heiremans D., President of the Sociedad de Fomento Fabril in Chile, “In formulating national development plans, private enterprise can adopt no other attitude than to cooperate diligently in the preliminary study and implementation of such plans.” Inter-American Development Bank, Private Enterprise and Latin American Development (Washington, 1962), p. 6.Google Scholar Also Vakil, Chandulal N., “Business Leadership in Underdeveloped Countries,” United Nations, Industrialization and Productivity, Bulletin #2, 1959Google Scholar. For a discussion of some related motivational and behavioral characteristics of entrepreneurs and managers in less developed countries, McClelland, David C., The Achiev ing Society (Princeton, 1961), chaps. 6 and 7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 See various mimeographed materials of the Asociación Venezolana de Ejecutivos, Caracas, 1963, including a summary by Ivan Lansberg Henriquez under the title Una Nueva Actitud (A New Attitude). Keprinted in La Responsabilidad Empresarial en el Desarrollo Social de Venezuela (Caracas, 1963).

16 Professor Hirschman points to the possible energizing function of the dissatisfaction both of entrepreneurs and policy-makers with past governmental policies. Hirschman, Albert O., Journeys Toward Progress: Studies of Economic Policy-Making in Latin Americo (New York, 1963), pp. 244 ff.Google Scholar