FOR 1664:  Selecting Personnel for Key Societal Roles

• Subject Area: Humanities ; Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: from 2014 to 2022
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 191290453

The Research Unit investigates the semantics, institutions and practices of personnel decisions for key societal roles with particular emphasis on churches, large businesses, the civil service and the military from ancient times to the recent past.It takes the observation as its starting point that personnel decisions are always made with a view to an uncertain future: Whether a person selected will prove to be suitable for the role is never be evident at the time of appointment. Personnel decisions can thus never be “objectively” correct, but have to be justified and secured against negative consequences in other ways, for example through examination of competences that will supposedly predict success, public support or reliance on external indications, such as divine signs.The Research Unit also postulates that it is not sufficient to make the observation that personnel decisions tend to mirror societal hierarchies in that privileged persons are likely to be overrepresented or in exclusive possession of key posts, as it is the rule that several candidates from similarly privileged backgrounds will compete. Processes leading to personnel decisions must thus be conceived in such a way that their result will be acceptable to those who are not successful in obtaining a post - in spite of or rather because of their inherent uncertainty.In its second phase, the research unit – which has previously focused on the manifestations of modes of personnel selection, such as election, cooptation, inheritance, lottery, patronage or competition – will place its emphasis on longer-term patterns in the evolution of personnel decisions and investigate the consequences of “failed” personnel decisions.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• International Connection: Italy

Projects

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Fahrmeir, Andreas )
• Expectations of the future and personnel recruitment of German and US-enterprises, 1918-1975 (Applicant Plumpe, Werner )
• Papstwahlreform in Renaissance und tridentinischer Zeit: Dynamisierungen von Verfahrensform, Amtslegitimation und Semantik (Applicant Wassilowsky, Günther )
• Personalentscheidungen bei gesellschaftlichen Schlüsselpositionen (Applicant Fahrmeir, Andreas )
• Personnel decisions in Italy from the later middle ages to the early modern period: Curia, church and communes (Applicant Emich, Birgit )
• Personnel decisions in public administration since the 1970s crises: national and international perspectives. (Applicant Cornelißen, Christoph )
• Personnel decisions in the byzantine military, 9-14th centuries (Applicant Pahlitzsch, Johannes )
• Personnel decisions through competitive examinations: France and Great Britain in Comparison, 1850-1950. (Applicant Fahrmeir, Andreas )
• TP 1: Magistri Militum in the sixth century (Applicant Leppin, Hartmut )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Andreas Fahrmeir