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42 Seattle U. L. Rev. 535 (2018-2019)
Berle and Means's the Modern Corporation and Private Property: The Military Roots of a Stakeholder Model of Corporate Governance

handle is hein.journals/sealr42 and id is 547 raw text is: Berle and Means's The Modern Corporation and Private Property: The Military Roots of a Stakeholder Model of Corporate Governance Andrew Smith, Kevin D. Tennent & Jason Russell* ABSTRACT The Modern Corporation and Private Property by Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means (1932) remains one of the most cited works in management studies. Our paper shows that Berle and Means espoused a stakeholder theory of corporate governance that challenged the then- hegemonic idea that the sole purpose of a corporation is to create value for the shareholders. We argue that Berle and Means's support for stakeholder theory can be associated with their earlier service in the U.S. military, an organization which then inculcated an ethos of public service in its members. Our paper, which is based on archival research in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library, seeks to relate changes in how U.S. military organizations have structured themselves with contemporaneous changes in the organization of private-sector firms. INTRODUCTION This paper will advance our understanding of the evolution of U.S. ideologies of corporate governance by examining the circumstances that surrounded the writing of The Modern Corporation and Private Property by Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means. Other researchers have argued that this influential book promoted managerialism, the philosophy of corporate governance that dominated U.S. business life from the 1930s to * Andrew Smith is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Liverpool Management School. Jason Russell is an Associate Professor of Labor and Policy Studies at SUNY Empire State College. Kevin Tennent is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of York Management School in the UK. A draft of this paper was presented at the Berle X Symposium in 2018, where we received helpful feedback on this paper from Bill Bratton, Brian R. Cheffins, Charlotte Garden, Ewan McGaughey, Charles O'Kelley, Frank Partnoy, and Harwell Wells. We earlier received guidance on the paper from Blanche Segrestin, George David Smith, Jeroen Veldman, Hugh Willmott, as well as from audience members at the Business History Conference, Cass Business School, and the European Academy of Management We also thank the helpful staff of the FDR Presidential Library. 535

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