IBM and Germany 1922–1941

In 1941, one of IBM’s most profitable customers was the German government. Germany leased IBM’s punch card tabulation machines (ancestors of the computer), and used them in its war against France, the United Kingdom and others. They were also used to conduct the census, to keep track of Jews and other ‘‘undesirables’’, and to operate the concentration camps. In 1937, Hitler awarded Watson a medal. By 1940, however, US public opinion had turned against Germany and he returned the medal. Outraged, German IBM executives and high-ranking Nazis threatened IBM’s control over its subsidiary. Although its activities were legal under US law, IBM was concerned about maintaining control of its German division, shielding itself from criticism in the US, and remaining eligible for more German government contracts. Watson needed to decide whether to maintain IBM’s lucrative relationship with Germany, make a clean break (and lose all its assets), or perhaps do something entirely different

Topics, Texts, and Critical Approaches: Integrating Dimensions of Liberal Learning in an Undergraduate Management Course

In light of recent critiques of management education, this article examines the Carnegie Report’s argument that the core components of liberal arts education (Analytical Thinking, Multiple Framing, The Reflective Exploration of Meaning, and Practical Reasoning) can and should be integrated into the undergraduate business curriculum. It then reviews prior efforts to draw on liberal learning in management education and provides an illustration of integration in the design of a required undergraduate management course for working adults. Included is a template that faculty can follow to better integrate Colby’s four dimensions of liberal learning into their business and management courses, with emphasis on the reflective exploration of meaning. In addition to course specifics, the article explores learning outcomes and student/administrative/institutional responses, as well as limitations, challenges, and opportunities for the future

Existential Underpinnings of Approach and Avoidance of the Physical Body

In addition to enjoying pleasurable bodily activities, people appear threatened by the physical aspects of the body; they experience anxiety and inhibitions surrounding sex, eating, bodily appearance and functions. Based on terror management theory, we posit that people are dually motivated to approach the life-affirming properties of the physical body, and to avoid the physical or animalistic aspects of the body because of their association with death. This paper summarizes a substantial body of research, consisting of over twenty empirical studies, that identify personality and situational variables that interact with mortality concerns, moderating approach and avoidance attitudes and behaviors with respect to the physical body. We suggest that this dynamic motivation can go far in explaining the often observed ambivalence toward the body