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Multiples of Six: The Six Companies and West Coast Industrialization, 1930–1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Christopher James Tassava
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Abstract

In this article I explore the protean organizational forms used by the Kaiser and Bechtel construction companies between 1930 and 1950. Kaiser and Bechtel prospered during the Depression and World War II because, as members of the Six Companies consortium of construction firms, they refused to adopt a “best practice” model of corporate organization drawn from the diversified manufacturing and distribution sectors. Instead, Kaiser and Bechtel used a variety of organizational forms to win numerous government contracts for public works and defense production, transforming themselves from small regional firms into substantial national and global corporations. I contribute to modern academic debate over the historical forms of business enterprise and the conjunction of state consumption and private production.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , 01 March 2003 , pp. 1 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2003. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

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References

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