How Do Business Schools Contribute to the Perpetuation of the Chilean Labor Model?

• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X211046636
• Author: Daniel Cruz,Francisca Gutiérrez Crocco
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X211046636

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 244, Vol. 49 No. 3, May 2022, 116–130

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X211046636

© 2021 Latin American Perspectives

116

How Do Business Schools Contribute to the Perpetuation

of the Chilean Labor Model?

by

Francisca Gutiérrez Crocco and Daniel Cruz

Translated by

Margot Olavarria

Business schools are important agents in the cultural circuit of capitalism, but little is

known about how they have played this role in countries like Chile. Research carried out

in four Chilean business schools shows that they have contributed to the perpetuation of

the labor relations model imposed after the neoliberal reforms in at least two ways: by

circulating knowledge that makes the collective dimension of labor relations invisible and

by declining to modify the attitudes of the student body toward labor relations manage-

ment.

Las escuelas de negocios son agentes importantes en el circuito cultural del

capitalismo, pero poco se sabe sobre cómo han jugado su papel en países como Chile. Una

investigación llevada a cabo en cuatro escuelas de negocios chilenas muestra que han

contribuido a la perpetuación del modelo de relaciones laborales impuesto después de las

reformas neoliberales en al menos dos maneras: circulando el conocimiento que invisibiliza

la dimensión colectiva de las relaciones laborales y negándose a modificar las actitudes del

cuerpo estudiantil hacia la gestión de las relaciones laborales.

Keywords: Unions, Labor relations, Business schools, Chile, Human resource manage-

ment, Cultural circuit of capital

The establishment of a new labor model was one of the pillars of the neolib-

eral reforms that the Chilean military, supported by the International Monetary

Fund and the World Bank, fostered in the 1980s. The doctrine of the “Chicago

Boys” suggested that reactivation of economic activity required reducing labor

costs and increasing management’s control over the labor process. The so-

called Labor Plan was charged with capturing these ideas in legislation and

eliminating many of the labor rights obtained in the previous decade. Labor

unions that had led the working class’s struggle during the years before the

military coup were among the main targets of this reform. The Plan restricted

collective bargaining in companies, allowed replacing workers during strikes,

Francisca Gutiérrez Crocco is a professor at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago and a

researcher at the Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Social. Daniel Cruz is a graduate

student in political science at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. Margot Olavarria is a translator

living in New York City. The research and preparation for this article were made possible by the

support of grants from the Fondo de Financiamento de Centros de Investigación en Áreas

Prioritarias (ANID-FONDAP 15130009), and the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y

Tecnológico (FONDECYT 11150217).

1046636LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X211046636Latin American PerspectivesGutiérrez and Cruz / Business Schools and The Chilean Labor Model

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