Necessity or Luxury? Welfare Work in the Company Towns of the Russian Empire
-
Volodymyr Kulikov
Volodymyr Kulikov is a historian, visiting faculty at the Central European University in Budapest and a research fellow in the “How to Teach Europe” Fellowship Programme (Budapest/Sofia). He defended his dissertation on “Peasant Economy in the Kharkiv Province of the Russian Empire (late 19th – early 20th century)” at the Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine) where he used to work as an associate professor until 2014. Publications include several studies on the history of industrialization and entrepreneurship in the Russian Empire and on the history of company towns in Ukraine. He has taught courses on various historical subjects as well as on Digital Humanities at the Karazin Kharkiv National University and at the Central European University in Budapest.
Abstract
Based on research into company towns in late imperial Russia, the author investigates the reasons why businesses financed welfare work. It is argued that companies targeted different social layers in their towns with various programmes offered as fringe benefits to retain their competitive edge for skilled employees on the labour market. Corporate money was also spent on luxuries such as theatres, social clubs, and similar provisions. All these were designed to attract managers and other salaried professionals whose economic and social weight increased dramatically after the managerial revolution in the late nineteenth century. However, the so-called “principal-agent problem” meant that some salaried managers spent corporate money for their own benefit, effectively turning welfare work into their own privilege. To prevent the misuse of welfare work, business owners had to control and incentivize their salaried managers (agents) to act in accordance with the company stockholders’ (the principals) best interests.
About the author
Volodymyr Kulikov is a historian, visiting faculty at the Central European University in Budapest and a research fellow in the “How to Teach Europe” Fellowship Programme (Budapest/Sofia). He defended his dissertation on “Peasant Economy in the Kharkiv Province of the Russian Empire (late 19th – early 20th century)” at the Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine) where he used to work as an associate professor until 2014. Publications include several studies on the history of industrialization and entrepreneurship in the Russian Empire and on the history of company towns in Ukraine. He has taught courses on various historical subjects as well as on Digital Humanities at the Karazin Kharkiv National University and at the Central European University in Budapest.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported in part by the Shevchenko Scientific Society.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Abhandlungen
- Friends or Foes of Transformation? Economic Elites in Post-Soviet Ukraine – an Introduction
- Oligarchs in Ukrainian Foreign Policymaking: Examining Influences in Transnational Politics
- Sustaining Business-State Symbiosis in Times of Political Turmoil: the Case of Ukraine 2007-2018
- The Business-superman: Oligarchs Justifying Giving in Post-Soviet Ukraine
- Global Arms Production and Ukraine’s Unpredictable Soviet Inheritance
- Forschungs- und Literaturberichte
- Die Rübenzuckerindustrie im Süd-Westen des Zarenreiches und die neuen Agrareliten
- Necessity or Luxury? Welfare Work in the Company Towns of the Russian Empire
- The Importance of Connections: The Rise of Jewish Business Elites in Galicia
- Handlungsspielräume in der Befehlswirtschaft – Die Hüttenwerke in der Ukraine unter deutscher Besatzung
- Preis für Wirtschaftsgeschichte
- The Political Role of Business Magnates in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Abhandlungen
- Friends or Foes of Transformation? Economic Elites in Post-Soviet Ukraine – an Introduction
- Oligarchs in Ukrainian Foreign Policymaking: Examining Influences in Transnational Politics
- Sustaining Business-State Symbiosis in Times of Political Turmoil: the Case of Ukraine 2007-2018
- The Business-superman: Oligarchs Justifying Giving in Post-Soviet Ukraine
- Global Arms Production and Ukraine’s Unpredictable Soviet Inheritance
- Forschungs- und Literaturberichte
- Die Rübenzuckerindustrie im Süd-Westen des Zarenreiches und die neuen Agrareliten
- Necessity or Luxury? Welfare Work in the Company Towns of the Russian Empire
- The Importance of Connections: The Rise of Jewish Business Elites in Galicia
- Handlungsspielräume in der Befehlswirtschaft – Die Hüttenwerke in der Ukraine unter deutscher Besatzung
- Preis für Wirtschaftsgeschichte
- The Political Role of Business Magnates in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes
