ABSTRACT
The stakeholder group ‘employees and management’ consisted of thousands of people in the Treuhandanstalt who were instrumental in bringing about wholesale economic change in East Germany. Employees occupied various positions within the organisational hierarchy of the Treuhandanstalt, in the case from the privatisation agent all the way up to the directors of the Treuhandanstalt. The chapter examines what these ‘change agents’ expected from the Treuhand as stakeholders and what they brought to the organisation. It explains the compensating incentives needed to attract and retain employees. The lack of organisational procedures, policies and systems needed to support efficient and effective operations, were not a deterrent for the potential employees of the agency. The burden of historical expectation lay upon the Treuhandanstalt and its employees compounded the enormous difficulties faced by the agency. The Treuhand employees were well compensated for their work, but needed to be so in view of a lack of long-term security and employment prospects.
