Tom Lupton, Tom Clayton and Allan Warmington
Pilkington Brothers is by any token a highly successful manufacturing company. From its centre in St Helens, Lancashire, this 150‐year old glass company has in the past few…
Abstract
Pilkington Brothers is by any token a highly successful manufacturing company. From its centre in St Helens, Lancashire, this 150‐year old glass company has in the past few decades expanded very rapidly. It is now a large and complex international business. Pilkington have plants in Canada, Australia, India, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, New Zealand, and Sweden. The company is a technological pace‐setter. Glass manufacturers the world over use Pilkington‐developed processes on licence. Although still essentially glass‐producers, Pilkington have by expansion, acquisition and merger, diversified into optical glass, fibreglass, and toughened vehicle‐glass, for example. What is more, this family firm seems to have managed the process of ‘going public’ with a great deal of skill. It survived the bitter and damaging strike of 1970 emerging two years later with improved profitability. Future prospects are to all appearances excellent. Pilkington always enjoyed, and still enjoys, amongst their own employees at every level and widely amongst the British public, a high reputation as employers who treat their employees with decency and consideration, and as pioneers of modern management techniques. The strike, by common consent, certainly tarnished that image, but it still persists strongly, especially in St Helens. Certainly, senior managers of the company strive honestly and vigorously to restore and to maintain the company's reputation.
Motivated by the call of the Congress for Industrial Organizations (CIO) for greater labour involvement in management (a call informed by the principles of the Taylor Society), US…
Abstract
Purpose
Motivated by the call of the Congress for Industrial Organizations (CIO) for greater labour involvement in management (a call informed by the principles of the Taylor Society), US business launched a crusade in 1944 under the banner, “The Right to Manage”. The purpose of this paper is to extend earlier explorations of the ideas that inspired the leaders of the CIO.
Design/methodology/approach
Through examining the work of the neglected feminist, and labour and social activist, Mary van Kleeck, the paper shows how the ideas concerning the democratisation of management, and the determination of decision making by knowledge, not profit, evolved into Taylorism's principal tenets.
Findings
The paper finds that an analysis of Mary van Kleeck's work helps explain why many of the ideas that prevailed among inter‐war Taylor Society members deeply disturbed employers, while concomitantly enthusing the CIO.
Originality/value
This paper redresses the view of scientific management's history that misleadingly stresses the initial hostility between Taylor's circle and organised labour, which has become entrenched in management folklore and accepted as axiomatic within the discipline, while ignoring the subsequent commitment of Taylor and the Taylor Society to management democratisation.
Details
Keywords
The paper suggests that traditional descriptive approaches to Personnel Management do not successfully answer the question ‘what is Personnel Management?’, nor do they explain the…
Abstract
The paper suggests that traditional descriptive approaches to Personnel Management do not successfully answer the question ‘what is Personnel Management?’, nor do they explain the way in which it actually exists in work organizations. A framework for analysis is proposed, looking at work organizations from the perspective of the Personnel Manager; it is suggested that this framework may help to answer some of these questions, provide a means of exploring the phenomenon of Personnel Management and also of studying it as a subject and a meeting point of disciplines.
No one knows for certain just how much British companies are losing each year through pilfering—but one estimate has put it at a staggering figure of £248 million. Management's…
Abstract
No one knows for certain just how much British companies are losing each year through pilfering—but one estimate has put it at a staggering figure of £248 million. Management's response to a current Home Office study into the problem is one of apparent complacency. Some firms, reports Ray Palmer, even seem prepared to accept internal theft rather than risk upsetting workers with stricter security checks.
The Fail-Safe Startup: Your Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success, the new book by entrepreneurship researcher Tom Eisenmann, sets out to help improve the odds by looking more…
Abstract
Purpose
The Fail-Safe Startup: Your Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success, the new book by entrepreneurship researcher Tom Eisenmann, sets out to help improve the odds by looking more closely at the most prevalent causes of startup failure and how to avoid them.
Design/methodology/approach
Eisenmann research led him to identify six distinct patterns that explain a large proportion of startup failures, three relating to early stage failures and three to late stage.
Findings
Strong demand from early adopters may lead a founder to scale up prematurely.
Practical/implications
Entrepreneurs must research differences in the needs of likely early adopters and mainstream customers during the upfront customer discovery phase.
Originality/value
Entrepreneurs must research differences in the needs of likely early adopters and mainstream customers during the upfront customer discovery phase. 10; 10;The line between visionary entrepreneur and cult leader can become blurry, and a founder?s ?reality distortion field--useful for motivating others to help pursue the founder?s dream?can become a liability.
Hans W. Klar, Kristin Shawn Huggins, Frederick C. Buskey, Julie K. Desmangles and Robin J. Phelps-Ward
The ever-increasing pressure for school improvement has led to a related increase in research-practice partnerships (RPPs) that address problems of practice. Yet, little research…
Abstract
Purpose
The ever-increasing pressure for school improvement has led to a related increase in research-practice partnerships (RPPs) that address problems of practice. Yet, little research has centered on how the myriad challenges to such partnerships can be overcome, such as bridging the cultural divide between universities and their school-based partners. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine how social capital was developed among the members of a steering committee in a RPP between a university and a 12-district consortium of predominantly rural, high-poverty school districts to develop and implement a professional development initiative for rural school leaders.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for this phenomenological single case study were collected over a one-year period through participant observations, document analysis and semi-structured interviews with ten steering committee members. Data were inductively and deductively coded through multiple rounds of analysis, which drew on the structural and cognitive elements of social capital (Uphoff, 2000). Findings were triangulated and member checked for trustworthiness.
Findings
The analysis of the data revealed three key ways in which social capital was developed among members of the steering committee to overcome the cultural challenges of RPPs to develop and implement a professional development initiative for rural school leaders: providing an open but focused structure, ensuring inclusive and respectful discussion and negotiating roles and ideas.
Originality/value
The findings provide a fine-grained illustration of how intentional efforts to develop social capital among members in a co-design team can assist in bridging the cultural boundaries often encountered in RPPs.
Details
Keywords
Allyson Kelley, Dee BigFoot, Clayton Small, Tom Mexicancheyenne and Robbie Gondara
Effective community-based suicide prevention strategies require culturally relevant contextually driven approaches, validated by community members. Existing literature, funding…
Abstract
Purpose
Effective community-based suicide prevention strategies require culturally relevant contextually driven approaches, validated by community members. Existing literature, funding agencies, and polices do not adequately address the differences in community vs non-community definitions and approaches to suicide prevention. These differences and the process must be articulated to fully understand the complexities of effective American Indian community-based suicide prevention strategies. This paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative methodology to understand the process and meaning of an American Indian reservation's community-based approach to suicide prevention.
Findings
Seven recommendations emerge. These include: expand the understanding of suicide; plan activities and outreach early; uphold cultural values; build administrative and community capacity; prepare and respond to community needs and situations; anticipate challenges and develop solutions; and recognize the spiritual aspects of the endeavor.
Originality/value
This study provides new insight about the process in which American Indian communities define, develop and implement suicide prevention strategies that are culturally relevant and community driven. The process and recommendations may be useful for institutions, funding agencies, policy makers, and tribal leaders, and community-based prevention partners.