Papers presented by Andrea Lluch since 2019

2025 Atlanta, Georgia

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2025 Atlanta, Georgia

"Development and Human Resources: ILO Technical Assistance Missions on Productivity and Management Development in Latin America during the 1950s to 1970s"

Abstract:

Although many scholars have examined the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) history and its focus on social and labor issues, few have looked into its initiatives to implement management development programs in developing nations (Amdam and Lluch, 2024). This paper examines the distinct and evolving aspects of various ILO technical assistance missions focused on productivity and management development (P&MD) from the 1950s to the early 1970s in Latin America. It will also examine how these efforts connect to similar initiatives by international organizations like ECLA. The initial argument is that P&MD missions represent a flexible and dynamic phenomenon that should be understood within the broader context of Human Resources technical assistance in Latin America. The paper emphasizes the variations and consistencies in the profiles, methods, and focus areas of technical assistants' missions in this region while also exploring the interplay between local actors and contexts and the circulation of Western management knowledge and experts during the Cold War. The analysis relies on documents from the ILO’s institutional repository, where we searched for digitized records related to “Latin America” and “Productivity and Management Development," resulting in over 40 pertinent reports from 1955 to 1976. Additionally, we accessed the UN Economic Commission for Latin America’s (ECLA, now ECLAC) digital repository for reports on productivity, human resources, and development.

2025 Atlanta, Georgia

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2024 Providence, Rhode Island

"Management Development and ILO Technical Assistance in the Cold War Era in Latin America"

Abstract:

Drawing on a comprehensive comprehension of management education, training, and development, this paper is part of a broader research that, together with Prof. Rolv Petter Amdam, explores how the Geneva-based International Labour Organization (ILO) has contributed to the promotion of the idea of management development in developing countries since the mid-1950s, in addition to the circulation of experts and Western management knowledge during the Cold War. The International Labour Organization (ILO) expressed multiple reasons for launching and supporting management development initiatives in Latin America. In general, ILO considered management skills as scarce resources in developing countries, including Latin America. By 1966, ILO could assert its active involvement in this specific field in 19 countries in Latin America. This paper will analyze these technical assistance and missions from the late 1950s until the early 1970s. For that, the paper will analyze quantitative and qualitative data to demonstrate the differing natures of various initiatives and programs related to productivity and management development over time and their alignment with other concurrent processes of management education development in Latin America. Although various scholars have investigated the history of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and its efforts in social and labor matters, the ILO's development management programs have received little attention from a business history perspective. The paper aims to enhance the research literature on business and management history by investigating the possibility of alternative role models, beyond the United States and transnational agents, for spreading managerial ideas during the Cold War in the now-called Global South.

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2023 Detroit, MI, United States

"ILO and the productivity and management development missions: the experience of the Productivity Center of Argentina (1958-1967)"

Abstract:

The 42nd ILO conference in 1958 declared that the productivity project should include management development programs to train top executives. This led to several ILO projects on management development in more than 40 developing countries, very often in cooperation with the United Nations Special Funds, which funded the projects. Argentina’s position as one of the pioneers’ projects worldwide on management development programs makes it highly relevant to explore how ILO’s initiative was received and matched with other local initiatives to develop the Argentine system of making managers. Considering this, the paper will analyze the concrete experience of the ILO’s designed Productivity Center of Argentina (CPA, from now) from its origin in the late 1950s to 1967, when the CPA was absorbed into the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Especially two processes invite us to explore the matching between the international ILO initiative and local conditions. In this specific period, both the productivity question and the need to institutionalize management education and development programs were put on the agenda, both by the government, business, and labor unions. The paper is based on Argentine sources and documents from the UN’s and ILO’s archives

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2023 Detroit, MI, United States

"Economic Development in South America, 1870s-1914s: Does the Lens of Trademark Registrations Provide any New Insights?"

Abstract:

It is well established that South America has fallen behind in terms of economic development since the late nineteenth century, but why and when exactly this occurred is still an ongoing debate. There are several competing views explaining the level of economic development of the region, drawing on a wide variety of indicators. However, the use of intellectual property rights data relying on trademark registrations has been absent from such debates. This study analyses and compares the evolution of intellectual property regimes in South America during the first global economy, from the 1870s to 1914, and assesses the branding and trademark protection strategies of local companies and multinational enterprises operating in the region. This is a period when several South American countries developed for the first-time new industries in consumer goods, which became key for the countries’ economies. This study focuses on the cases of Colombia, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and draws on a variety of primary and secondary sources. An original database with all the trademark registrations for each of these countries was collected for the first time. Corporate archives when available, as well as import and export statistics, and foreign direct investment data were also used. The study addresses the following questions: Is it possible to identify patterns in terms of trademark registrations indicative of spillovers and learning by local entrepreneurs and businesses, resulting from different modes of entry into those markets by multinational enterprises? How significant are entrepreneurial diasporas in explaining the creation of industries, and the long-term competitiveness of those industries in global branded consumer goods industries? What new insights does the lens of trademark registrations provide on explanations of economic development in South America during the first globalization wave?

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2022 Mexico City

"ILO and the making of managers in Argentina"

Abstract:

Research on the international development of management education after World War II has focused mainly on the role of key U.S. institutions such as the US government, business schools, and the Ford Foundations (e.g. Engwall, Kipping, & Üsdiken, 2016; Gemelli, 1998). This perspective has recently been challenged by extending the international perspective to include the Global South, and by accentuating the role of local actors (Kumar, 2019; Wanderley, Alcadipani, & Barros, 2021). In this paper we challenge the dominating perspective by exploring how the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with headquarters in Geneva contributed to promote the idea of management education in developing countries from the mid-1950s to around 1970. Just after the war, ILO engaged heavily in initiating productivity projects in several developing countries. This work included the idea of vocational education. ILOs 42nd conference in 1958 represented a shift in this work, when the organization declared that the productivity project should include management development programs to train top executives. This led to several ILO projects on management development in more than 40 developing countries, very often in cooperation with UN. This paper will analyze how ILO’s initiative matched other processes of developing management education in Latin America by focusing on Argentina. This focus is relevant since ILO prioritized Argentina highly in this context, and in some documents are mentioned as the most important country in addition to Poland. We also know that the role of national institutions and actors in Argentina was strong and independent versus relevant U.S. actors. In this way, the paper will challenge the conventional U.S.-European focus in the literature on the post-war development of management education. The paper is based on archival research at ILO’s archive as well as Argentine sources.

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2022 Mexico City

"Big Business in Argentina: An Analysis of the Corporate Elite in the Long Term, 1913-1971"

Abstract:

In economic historiography, the analysis of large companies constitutes a relevant topic associated with economic development. Since the pioneering studies of Alfred Chandler, Business History has contributed to identify the expansion strategies that gave rise to the large multinationals and develop a typology of companies to explain the development of industrial capitalism in developed countries. On the other hand, in debate with Chandler's thesis, studies of large companies in other countries have identified other dominant organizational forms, including economic groups. Likewise, in recent years, the question about the relationship between the corporate structure and the forms of capitalism has returned. As refers to Latin American economies, the leading role of diversified economic groups and foreign companies in coordinating Latin American economies and its impact on economic development has also been pointed out. The entry of Argentina into the first globalization as a supplier of raw materials, its late industrialization and its focus on the domestic market implied the dominance of foreign companies and diversified economic groups in the corporate elite. This paper will analyze the profile and transformations of large companies in the long term in Argentina. The main contribution of the research consists in the elaboration of the rankings of the 200 largest companies according to their social capital between 1913 and 1971 and the construction of a database of large companies in Argentina based on homogeneous sources and criteria. After the registration and processing of information on the companies registered in the country, the rankings of the 200 largest companies by social capital were elaborated for selected years: 1913, 1923-4, 1930-1, 1937-8, 1944, 1959- 60 and 1970-1. The sources for the elaboration of this database were the directories and companies’ annual reports published in Argentina. The research also contributes to integrate the information provided by the numerous sectorial and case studies, in a first attempt to identify the dynamics and extent of the life cycles of the largest companies in Argentina.

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