Search results

In the British social formation, especially after 1960, there has been a tendency towards an external mode of control of industrial relations which is based upon the internal regulation of labour collectivities. The article argues that corporatism and hegemony are both inextricably linked facets of the same process — the ideological control of the IR system, embodying both corporate agencies and hegemonic relations, by a state which has various forms.

As the 1980s drew to a close a plethora of retrospective articles and programmes appeared in the media analysing, panning and celebrating perceiving key moments and transitions in collective British life during the previous decade. A common theme in both ‘business’ (The Money Programme, 7/01/1990), and ‘cultural’ (The Late Show, 15/09/1990) programming of this type was the representation of Britain's ‘retail revolution’ as one of the most significant phenomenon of the age. The ubiquitous presence of retail, it was argued, extended well beyond the simple proliferation of shopping centres throughout the UK. Retail had, in an important sense become a defining motif of the decade, ‘an approach, an ideology almost, permeating the culture’ (Gardner and Sheppard 1989, p. 66). It had at its core a celebration of the marketplace and of the ‘sovereign consumer’ which echoed strongly with the prevailing political climate. As one commentator put it ‘retailing is … virtually the paradigm of the Enterprise Culture’ (Bamfield 1988). It is not difficult to see why.

There has been a spate of articles recently on how to design and install successful appraisal schemes. Hardly an issue of a personnel or management journal appears without some advice on how to make appraisal succeed or suggesting reasons why such schemes fail. In such a situation one must have very clear justification for adding to the torrent of advice and analysis. My justification is simply that it seems that one particularly important and fruitful approach to this topic has been consistently overlooked.

Suggests that increasing competitiveness in the corporate environment demands new managerial skills which reflect the key values of 1990s employee behaviour – i.e. quality performance in line with the constantly changing requirements of clients and colleagues. Points to the dramatic increase in management training as one way of enhancing managerial creativity and skill, and asks if such training programmes actually work, and if they can help managers to overcome their often unproductive work habits. Describes a successful management development programme aimed primarily at directors within a large, multinational insurance broking firm. Concludes that it is crucial that such training helps managers to adjust to, and deal with, their environment by encouraging them to learn how to learn and to use this capacity to confront performance problems and to work with others to overcome them.

Provides a practical insight into the three separate steps needed in the process of facilitating learning in small groups. Group facilitators do three things: they take in what goes on around them and inside themselves; they then make sense of it; finally, they intervene. Practical guidance in how to do these three things is provided, with theoretical back‐up.

The central issue pre‐occupying the sociology of work is the origin, nature and implications of changes currently occurring in paid employment. These changes are seen to occur along a number of key dimensions: the structuring of organisations, the design of work, and the nature and form of industrial relations.

On the whole appraisal schemes and interviews are not popular with those who are asked to implement them. This resistance, which has occasioned a great deal of debate and anguish in the management literature is usually held to result either from a lack of training and general sophistication on the part of the delinquent manager, or from his unwillingness to jeopardise his relationships with his subordinates, who are also his colleagues. However it can also be argued, as this article does, that such unpopularity, and consequent resistance stems from the fact that managers' work performances — which are appraised and discussed at the appraisal interview — are not simply the outcome of the managers' individual abilities, skills, attitudes and predispositions. They are also deeply influenced by his membership of, and location in, the organisation. The most relevant aspect of this organisational membership is that managers are constrained and limited by what is known as the structure of the organisation. This concept and its implications are discussed below.

At first sight this topic brings to mind Sherlock Holmes's remark about the dog that didn't bark in the night — the most striking thing about the relationship between management development and organisation theory is the lack of any relationship. However, closer inspection reveals that there is a relationship — albeit an uncertain one — and it operates — or fails to operate — at three levels.

To explore senior managers’ knowledge and thinking about strategy and organisational capabilities, and developments of both during a time of transition.

Interpretive case research based on semi‐structured interviews with 44 senior managers in a number of business organisations in Ethiopia supplemented by secondary sources.

Senior managers had a narrow and contingent knowledge of, and interaction with, the external environment. The notion of “strategy” was problematical for them. Managers’ knowing of their environment and organisational aspects were differentiated, context specific and subject to changes and reinterpretations depending on shifting roles, responsibilities and changing contexts.

This research sheds light on how assumptions about the often “taken‐for‐grantedness” of the strategic “manageability” of change by senior managers may be exaggerated. This was revealed, at one extreme, in this research but it may extend also into other situations in varying degrees. In this and other ways the study of senior Ethiopian managers could be used as a way to reflect back upon conventional thinking about strategizing in other contexts.

The research can help managers gain insight into how their everyday ways of knowing and seeing are unnecessarily limited and constrained.

Work in business knowledge is just commencing and hence its continuity would further both scholars’ and practitioners’ understanding of the knowledge work of managers in varied contexts and environments.