The International Executive Service Corps and the Global Expansion of American Management Culture

Abstract This article reviews the International Executive Service Corps program. The IESC program, initiated in 1964, aimed to send experienced American business executives to client companies and organizations in «underdeveloped» or «developing» countries for a project assignment. US policymakers backed the idea that the United States should rely on «private enterprises» to promote the American business management culture. David Rockefeller, along with many other leading businessmen of the time, initiated the IESC program and encouraged «ambassadors of American business», who prioritized «free enterprise» and «efficient rational management», to serve in developing societies. The program eventually helped build a new global network of managers and companies, who knew each other, in particular sectors. Based on a detailed investigation of the IESC collections in the Rockefeller archives this article primarily presents a structural review of the IESC. It then discusses how American business culture expanded across the «developing world» and how a global network of managers has emerged through the IESC program since the 60s.