"Culture, Work and Management in Business History"

This presentation situates managerial culture at the centre of business history’s co-creative processes. It explores how systems of management and forms of work emerge not as top-down impositions but as outcomes of negotiation between firms, employees, and wider social and institutional contexts. Using historical examples from industrial and post-industrial settings, Godelier analyses how managerial ideologies, organisational norms, and workplace values are continuously redefined through interaction and adaptation. By adopting a co-creation lens, the paper challenges deterministic or firm-centric interpretations of managerial change and highlights the embeddedness of management practices within cultural and institutional environments. It demonstrates how historical inquiry can reveal the long-term evolution of ideas about work, responsibility, and organisational purpose—issues central to current debates about fair employment, sustainable production, and social well-being. Through this analysis, Godelier argues that understanding the co-production of managerial culture enhances our grasp of how economic and moral orders evolve together and why business history offers essential insights into present-day concerns about decent work and inclusive growth.