Biography and Management History

“Don’t tell my mother I’m a biographer, she thinks I’m a historian”

François Dosse, Le pari biographique, 2005, p. 17

Biographies, although criticized by the Annales School, have come back into favour with historians. One only has to name Jacques Le Goff and his Saint Louis or read Le pari biographique by François Dosse (2005) to know that. This does not, however, mean a return to hagiographical accounts and herioic portraits that tend to mask the truth about an era rather than reveal it. For the 22nd History of Management and Organizations Conference, we are looking for papers that help to understand better the behaviour of managers and the myriad of theories on management, but that also have an interest for the reader; in this respect descriptions of psychological profiles or anecdotes can be a highly useful device.

The wide scope offered by the subject covers both business players and theoreticians on the management of organizations, which are indeed sometimes one and the same in the case of Henri Fayol, FrederickWinslow Taylor, Chester Barnard or Alfred Sloan, to name just some of these illustrious writers. It can also be worthwhile to take a look at some less known authors, such as Emile Rimailho or Charles Bedaux. While the examples given above are all 20th century figures, there is no limit, in time, geographical zone or gender, to the subjects considered (one only has to think of the biography of Mary T. Washington, the first female CPA). This call for papers is not restricted to pure management, it being influenced both by the social and the exact sciences.

The only rule we have set is that contributions must be original and respect the rules of historiography. What we do not want is a simple biographical account. Social background, education and cultural and national factors can be referred to, of course, avoiding a deterministic stance, while showing what we can learn from them and what impact the author, entrepreneur or other individual has had on management.

It would be interesting to consider the aims of the biographer: present the subject as an example to be followed for educational purposes, or as a heroic figure or the figurehead of an organization, symbolizing its identity and motivating its members. In contrast, one could focus on a particular individual in order to help to understand the role of the multitude of anonymous players forming the fabric of a business, or otherwise take a microhistorian's look at "the normal exception" whose deviation from the norm provides us with more information about it.

We would also welcome works presenting variants from conventional biographies. These could be collective portraits according to prosopographical research, or studies of networks from a sociological perspective, such as those of Michel Callon and Bruno Latour. We cannot ignore the success stories of the likes of Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs, which could also be the subject of a paper. 

As has been the practice for many years, proposals for presentations falling outside this theme, but examining management problems and issues through a proper historical lens, will be equally welcome. Novelty and originality will be the key selection criteria.

To submit: click here

Important dates:

• 2nd january 2017: Paper (or abstract) submission deadline
• 30th January 2017: Notification of acceptance
• 17th February 2017: Full paper submission deadline
• 23-24th March 2017: JHMO 2017