Horst Steinmann

Horst Steinmann ( born July 17, 1934 in Bad Salzuflen, Lippe) is a German economist and professor emeritus of business administration and business management.

Life and work

After high school, Horst Steinmann studied business administration at the University of Göttingen and was 1959 earning his degree in business administration. In 1962 he received his doctorate from the Technical University of Clausthal.

1964/65 he studied at the Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires ( INSEAD ) in Fontainebleau, earning the 1965 Master of Business Administration (MBA). In 1967 he completed his habilitation at the Technical University of Clausthal.

He became a full professor of Business Administration and Chair of General Business Administration and Business Research at the University of Berlin in 1968. In 1970 he was appointed Professor of Business Administration and Management at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences (formerly the School of Economic and Social Sciences Nuremberg ) at the Friedrich -Alexander- University Erlangen- Nuremberg, at which he worked until his retirement.

His research interests and research included strategic management, human resource management, business planning and control, organizational theory, corporate governance, business ethics and philosophy of science. He had offers to different colleges (Paderborn, Darmstadt, FU Berlin), but they refused from.

In 1986, Steinmann, together with other interested parties, the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN ) and 1993, the German Business Ethics Network ( DNWE ), in which, inter alia, also Marcus Bierich, Chairman of the Board and the Supervisory Board of Robert Bosch GmbH, long time Chairman of the Trustees was.

In September 1999, Steinmann became Professor Emeritus. Nevertheless, Steinmann continues to hold lectures and writes smaller essays.

Broad teaching: the economics as a normative act Science - Business Ethics

Steinmann - starting in the seventies - proposed a new epistemological basis for business management, which should replace the (then) prevailing in the subject " critical rationalism ". He found her in 'Methodological constructivism " as it was developed at the time of William Kamlah and Paul Lorenzen in Erlangen ( " Erlangen School " ), and in the development and partial revision in the ' Methodological culturalism " by Peter Janich, Marburg, and Carl Friedrich Gethmann, food. Tying it demands that the business administration must not only seek their objective, but also its methodological starting point in the plot practice ( life world), rather than starting with ( unproven ) axioms ( principles ), ie science determine their goals autonomously but the (current ) practice constitutes the objectives of Sciences ( Lorenzen ).

Outlines short this means that the first - the research and teaching orienting concepts - are to be gained from successful practical life distinctions. This includes in particular the distinction between "acting" as absichtsgeleitetem doing and " behavior " as a mere reaction to external stimuli. The concept of action refers to the liberty of the people with regard to the choice of ends and means should be taken to successfully meet the specific contexts of conflict, problems of life, against the idea of a complete definition of human activity by " laws of nature " ( determinism ). Business administration is therefore - to operate as a cultural science - against all varieties of " naturalism ". The results of economic actions are " kultürlich " as opposed to "natural".

From this beginning, it follows that the business administration is to be developed as a normative action science ( Steinmann 1978). You should - together with other disciplines - provide a ( justified ) knowledge for all the cases ready, where people argue about the means by which they can achieve given ends best ( resource conflicts ); this is about the " technical reason", which finds its expression in the " principle of economy " in the BWL. In addition to the Business Administration but also advise where the practice argues about what purposes should be action-guiding (purpose conflicts); here it is in philosophical parlance, the " practical reason ". It follows at Steinmann the requirement to develop an " economic and business ethics " as a legitimate lesson in business administration - against the prevailing opinion on the " value judgment freedom of Sciences ".

Purposes are namely justification capable of when you not only the deductive derivation of sentences of ( axiomatic ) Upper sentences meant by justification, but justifying themselves reconstructed as (voice ) acting, in the sense of a dialogue - argumentative debate about the best reasons to take action with the aim of the peaceful settlement of conflicts ( Steinmann / Scherer 2002). Horst Steinmann and some of his students, among others, Andreas Georg Scherer and Albert Löhr, have developed such a theory of business ethics.

For this doctrine Steinmann refers consequently that it makes sense to " idealistic " can not be substantiated, in the sense of a beginning at absolute, universally valid a priori as claimed values. Rather, the business ethics has to take a pragmatic beginning. Therefore, at the heart of Steinmann 's corporate ethics, the question of the coordination of human action. The experience of teaching here is that the arguments derived peaceful conflict resolution the application of power - would be preferable - at least in principle; Conflict resolution by force would lead to unstable conditions, because any change in the power bases of the conflict 'll break again. The argumentative conflict resolution between parties concerned, however, would offer the opportunity (inner) insight and (outer) soundness ( freedom of objections ) for phrases about statements and claims to achieve and so by the consensus of individual freedom with the unit (order) to connect the whole until the change of the conditions require new consultations.

It is this ( methodically offered ) pragmatic beginning, who directs the Corporate Ethics on the historical conditions for their successful practicing. This will include companies that act as institutions of capitalist competition economy. They are therefore dependent on achieving adequate profits, as a condition for their survival in the competition. The Steinmannsche teaching makes here however clear that the profit motive would lead only a general presumption of correctness entrepreneurial action with it, but not quite ready for each individual case in the choice of means to make a profit. Here must ensure corporate ethical behavior in each individual case that abuses (corruption, pollution, exploitation of workers in developing countries, etc.) omitted or avoided according to the possibilities offered. It is the " primacy of corporate ethics ": profits are to be made with morally acceptable means. Steinmann understand this moral responsibility of corporate management as a regulatory requirement, not as a voluntary ( though perhaps laudable ) Doing management. Business ethics can and should thus help to support the legitimacy of the market economy.

Honors

Writings

  • Linear production models of the short-term programming. For the static production theory based on linear planning. Thesis of 7 February 1962, the Mining Academy, Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Humanities, Clausthal, 1962, 219, pp. XI
  • The large companies in conflict of interest. An economics of its discussion on fundamental issues of reform of the corporate order in highly developed industrial societies. Habilitation thesis, Clausthal. Stuttgart: Poeschel, 1969, XIV, 329 S.
  • Günter Dlugos, Gerhard Eberlein, and Horst Steinmann: Philosophy of Science and Business Administration. A methodological controversy. Bertelsmann University Press, 1972, 244 pp.
  • Horst Steinmann (ed.): Business Administration as a normative action science. The meaning of the constructive theory of science for the Business Administration ( Publication Series of the Journal of Business Management, Volume 9 ), Wiesbaden: Betriebswirtschaftlicher Verlag Gabler, 1978, 304 pp., ISBN 3-409-34481-0 (series of the Journal of Business Economics; Vol. 9)
  • Horst Steinmann, Helmut Müller, Michael Heinrich: Porst - employee company. A case study of company policy. Nuremberg: Chair of General Business Administration and Business Management at the University of Erlangen -Nuremberg, 1979, 24 pp. ( Discussion Papers; H. 2)
  • Horst Steinmann, in collaboration with Rainer Achenbach: planning and control. Problems of strategic management. Munich: Franz Vahlen GmbH, 1981, IX, 523 pp., ISBN 3-8006-0813-8 (governance; 1)
  • Horst Steinmann, Albert Löhr: Fundamentals of corporate ethics. Stuttgart: Poeschel, 1991, IX, 219 pp., ISBN 3-7910-9157-3 ( collection Poeschel, P 131 ) 2, revised. and ext. Edition, 1994, XII, 279 pp., ISBN 3-7910-9195-6 Czech: ZAKŁADY podnikové etiky [Z 2 vyd. nemeckého orig. prel. Gustav Tomek ]. 1 vyd .. Victoria Pub, Prague 1995, ISBN 80-85865-56-4
  • Horst Steinmann, Georg Schreyögg, in collaboration with Jochen Koch: management. Fundamentals of Corporate Management - concepts - functions - Case studies. In 1990. 6th edition. Wiesbaden: Gabler, 2005, ISBN 3- 409-63312 -X. Translated into Polish: 1992, 5th edition 2001.
  • Brij N. Kumar and Horst Steinmann (ed.): Ethics in International Business. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1998, 360 pages ( de Gruyter Studies in Organization)
  • Georges Enderle, Karl Homann, Martin Honecker, Walter Kerber, Horst Steinmann (ed.): Encyclopedia of business ethics. Freiburg, Basel, Vienna: Herder, 1993
  • Horst Steinmann and Andreas Georg Scherer ( eds. ): Between universalism and relativism. Philosophical problems of intercultural management. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, ​​1998, 421 pp., ISBN 3-518-28980-2 ( Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Science, 1380 )
  • Günter Bentele, Horst Steinmann, Ansgar Zerfaß: Dialogue-oriented corporate communications, Basics - Practical experience - Perspectives, public relations, public relations and communication management. Berlin: Vistas, 1996, 472 pp., ISBN 3-89158-166-1 (Series Public Relations, Public Relations and Communication Management, Volume 4 )
  • Thomas Bausch, Annette Kleinfeld, Horst Steinmann (ed.): Corporate ethics in business practice. Munich and Mering: Rainer Hampp Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-87988-458-7 ( Series of the DNWE = German Business Ethics Network, Episode 7 )
  • Horst Steinmann, Andreas Scherer: Business Administration and Methodical culturalism. What does the culturalist program for the foundation of Business Administration, in: Mathias Gutmann, Dirk Hartmann, Michael Weingarten and Walter Zitterbarth (ed.): Culture - Action - Science for Peter Janich, Weilerswist 2002, pp. 149-181

Known students

Some undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students Horst Steinmann's reached high positions in science and industry and were therefore known to the public.

  • Uwe Corsepius ( born 1960 ), Secretary General of the European Commission (European Council of Ministers), vorm. Head of the European policy in the Federal Chancellery
  • Thomas Eckardt ( born 1951 ), Professor of Business Administration and Economics computer science, Georg -Simon- Ohm University Nuremberg, Georg -Simon- Ohm Management Institute, Institute of International Business
  • Werner Fees, Professor of Management and General Business Administration, Georg -Simon- Ohm - Hochschule Nürnberg
  • Elmar Gerum (* 1946), Chair of Organization and Personnel Management, University of Marburg
  • Peter Greischel ( b. 1955 ), professor at the Faculty of Tourism, University of Applied Sciences Munich
  • Michael Heinrich ( * 1951 ), Managing Director of the Leitz Metalworking Technology Group, Oberkochen
  • Gerhard Hess ( born 1960 ), Professor of Logistics, Supply Management and General Business Administration, Georg -Simon- Ohm - Hochschule Nürnberg
  • Hans Klaus ( born August 23, 1956), Professor of Business Economics and Management, University of Applied Sciences Kiel
  • Brij Nino Kumar (1938 -2000), Department of Business Economics and International Management, University of Erlangen -Nuremberg
  • Albert Löhr (* 1955), Department of Social Sciences, especially environmental social and economic ethics, Rector of the International University Institute in Zittau
  • Minderlein Martin ( b. 1957 ), Professor of Business Administration and Data Processing, Department of Economic and General Studies at the University of Ansbach
  • Margit Osterloh ( born 1943 ), Chair of Organization, Technology and Innovation Management, University of Zurich
  • Skevos Papaioannou ( b. 1947 ), Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Crete, Greece
  • Bernd Richter (born 1954 ), Professor of Business Administration with a focus on business management, University of Konstanz Technology, Business and Design
  • Andreas Georg Scherer (born 1964 ), Chair of Foundations of Business Administration and Theories of the Firm, University of Zurich
  • Georg Schreyögg (* 1946), Chair of Organization and Management, Free University of Berlin
  • Ansgar Zerfaß (born 1965 ), professor at the Institute of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Leipzig
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