Fascists Infiltrating a University: A Case Study
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, German universities faced the rise of national socialist ideology among both their students and their external stakeholders. University leaders were typically embedded in a traditional bourgeois milieu, which resulted in aggressive confrontations between competing political ideologies.
This study investigates the dynamics of conflicts arising from ideological confrontations in the Technical University of Brunswick between 1930 and 1933. Specifically, I explore how key actors strategically used formal and informal means to trigger conflicts and to attain power within the organization. The conflict became public with the (failed) attempt to appoint Adolf Hitler as professor and culminated in the dismissal of key actors after January 1933. This study provides insights into the corrosive nature of a fascist ideology, the risks of apolitical conservatism in the face of radical ideologies, and the importance of formal governance structures for managing tensions between organizational values and external political interference.
Klaus Meyer
Klaus E. Meyer is a Professor of International Business, and the J. Allyn & Arthur H. Mingay Chair at Ivey Business School. He joined in 2017 after six years at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.
Professor Meyer is a leading scholar in the field of international business conducting research on the strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs), especially foreign entry strategies, in emerging economies, especially Eastern Europe and East Asia. A central theme of his research is the influence of local contexts on the strategies and operations of MNEs operating in emerging economies. Other work investigates the strategies of MNEs originating from emerging economies, in particular China, and how their origins shape their international growth strategies. Recently, he was particularly interested in political disruptions that lead (or do not lead) to exit from international activities, and the diverse pressures on multinational enterprises to enhance the sustainability of their operations.
He has published over 100 articles in leading scholarly journals, in particular in Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Management Journal and Journal of Management Studies, and he published nine books, including the textbook “International Business” (with Mike Peng, published by Cengage Learning, 3rd ed., 2019). In 2012-2014, he was Vice President of the AIB and chaired the 2014 AIB conference in Vancouver, Canada. He served as Area Editor of the Journal of International Business Studies 2016 to 2022. Since 2021, he serves on the Executive Committee of the International Management Division of the Academy of Management.