Becoming fully functional: The conceptual struggle for a new structure for the giant corporation in the US and UK in the first half of the twentieth century

The rapid growth of the larger corporations in the US from the late nineteenth century onwards made the question of the appropriate structure for these new corporate giants of increasing importance to management writers. Particularly difficult was the relationship between line management and functional management as management hierarchies lengthened and specialisms grew in number and scope. Developing ideas from F.W. Taylor and Harrington Emerson by US and UK writers brought confusion as much as it brought progress. Attempts from the late 1920s to evolve organisational proposals by establishing principles of organisation brought modest advances but no conceptual breakthroughs. By the Second World War no management writers appear to have proposed or identified anything resembling the multidivisional form.     

Eighteenth Century Monopoly: The Cornish Metal Company Agreements of 1785

Alfred Chandler has recently suggested that ‘the general failure to develop organisational capabilities weakened British industry and with it the British economy’. However, his view has been criticised as regards British multinational investment, where organisational forms such as mercantile groups were significant. This article examines the organisational links between companies in the P&;O shipping group during a period in which it was mainly located within the Inchcape mercantile group. Links were loose and often informal, which facilitated devolution of decision making. Although the financial crisis faced by the P&;O group in 1932 may partly have been due to an excessive accumulation of information and control in the hands of a single individual, the organisational structure proved sufficiently resilient to persist after the crisis had been resolved. It is concluded that, in the inter-war years just as in the pre-World War I period, personal capitalism and informal organisational structures benefited from networks of trust and thus cannot be rejected as weak.     

Codes of Conduct in Organisational Context: From Cascade to Lattice-Work of Codes

Codes of conduct have proliferated not only at company level, but also at supra- and sub-organisational levels. However, the latter have remained an under-researched area within the CSR literature. Hence, this article examined what range of organisational and sub-organisational codes large companies – here the FTSE100 constituent companies – have developed. The article isolated seven different types of organisational and sub-organisational codes, which together with six supra-organisational ones form a lattice-work of intermeshing documents. Such a division of labour between types of codes has two significant implications for CSR practice and research. In terms of corporate practice, an analysis of the content of the organisational and sub-organisational codes indicates that companies seem to enter into generalised commitments in the more visible documents, whereas other aspects, in particular more coercive aspects of CSR, get buried in the lower levels of the code hierarchy. In terms of research methodology, the differentiation between codes highlights that an analysis of codes of conduct alone is insufficient to establish what the CSR approach of a company is. Rather, it is the entire range of codes at organisational and sub-organisational levels that scholars of codes of conduct should be concerned with.     

Ownership and Governance in the Insurance Industry: A Review of the Theory and Evidence

The objective of this paper is to review the coexistence of mutual and proprietary insurance companies from a corporate governance perspective.The paper begins by reviewing the theoretical justification for the existence of mutual and proprietary companies in the insurance industry. The paper then examines the empirical evidence on insurance company performance and seeks to identify whether organisational structure influences managerial behaviour. Finally, the paper analyses the impactof insurance conversions (i.e. mutualisation and demutualisation) on the welfare of po1icyholders,shareholders and managers in order to identify whether the conversion process is motivated by efficiency or expropriation objectives.     

Organisational rigidities and marketing theory: examining the US department store c.1910–1965

By analysing the US department store during the period c.1910–1965, this article deepens our understanding of the nature of the transition to phases of ‘maturity’ and ‘decline’ that are fundamental to models of retail change (retail wheel, retail life cycle). By employing a close reading of key marketing and management writing of the period, it finds that ‘lock-in’ to an organisational structure associated with a single downtown store posed significant obstacles to suburban branched expansion. Only partial organisational centralisation occurred with the formation of holding companies in the 1920s, which contrasted with chains of general-merchandise and some department store retailers that were efficiently structured and better able to exploit suburban growth. When major department store companies finally embraced branched expansion, they were forced to significantly revise their operational structures.     

Effects of organisational culture on brand portfolio performance

Many consumer goods firms have a wide brand portfolio. If these are not carefully managed, it can lead to brand proliferation, and result in complex organisational structure, lack of focus and resource constraints. Drawing on previous work on the role of leaders in effective brand management, this study explores the effects of organisational culture on brand portfolio performance. Based on a mail survey of consumer goods companies, the findings show that leadership, company vision, staff rewards, motivation and ownership are crucial to brand portfolio performance. Likewise, a brand orientation helps brand focus, coordination, and emphasises shared vision and the long-term orientation. This study contributes to the organisation-wide approach to brand portfolio management.     

Managing industrial service co-design: identifying challenges from technology firms

This article investigates how the co-design of industrial services is managed by technology firms. Through multiple-case studies within high-technology semiconductor companies, the article finds that overlapped stages and collective action require considerations on a case-by-case basis as determined by business opportunities, industry standards, existing organisational practice and service level agreements. The major contribution of this article is a connection between recent research emphasising the importance of providing industrial services, and established literature on co-design. Key service operations management challenges are also identified and discussed in terms of the need for studies and frameworks to coordinate negotiations for enhanced service encounters, to critique industrial service co-design, and to integrated information during service design.     

Deadlock in corporate governance: Finding a common strategy for private telephone companies, 1978–1998

This paper looks at how a group of small, incumbent private telephone companies complied with the international convergence of market structures. The existing research has mainly focused on large national incumbents, assuming a transition to multinational enterprise. This development process is often associated with privatisation policies and various institutional factors. The article tests these assumptions using a case study of the network of Finnish local telephone companies. It looks at the development of an interfirm network, its perspectives on the different phases of the deregulation process, and how the network tried to regenerate itself but failed to form a unified corporate structure capable of mounting a common business strategy. The reason for this failure resembles the idea of governance inseparability: private telecom companies were committed to the objectives and form of a tried and trusted cooperation model, which no longer met the requirements of the competitive and increasingly liberalised business environment of the 1990s. This case demonstrates that the significance of both corporate governance and organisational development are, above all, related to the firm’s ability to regenerate itself.     

Transforming learning into export performance by Chinese firms

Organisational learning plays a vital role in enhancing firm performance, particularly for companies operating in foreign markets. Knowledge gained from various markets needs to be integrated for it to have a significant impact on performance. This study seeks to demonstrate how organisational learning can transform knowledge into performance through an organization-wide commitment to learning, a knowledge integration system and an organisational capability to learn. A survey undertaken in South China would show that there is a sequential chain of effects among these constructs.     

Consequences of commercial web presence: an exploratory study of South Korean business adopters of websites

A key research issue to this study is to explore how marketers who have already presented on the web perceive the world wide web as a marketing communications tool. The research focus is on examining what organisational benefits are recognised and how such benefits are associated with organisational features, attitudes towards the web presence and overall satisfaction with the web presence.

The data for this study were collected from a national survey of a stratified random sample of 164 South Korean companies who were running websites at the time. The results obtained in this study suggest that companies, overall, hold favourable attitudes towards their web presence, yet the overall level of satisfaction with running websites was moderate. Four benefit dimensions emerged from the factor analysis. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Directors' ownership and the performance of small and medium sized firms in the U.K.

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between firm performance and the proportion of shares owned by directors for a sample of small and medium sized companies in the U.K. The paper also examines, however, the impact of organisational form on firm performance. The results suggest that, in contrast to the majority of large firm studies on the subject, a curvilinear relationship is found to exist between firm performance and the percentage of equity held by the board of directors. The return on assets of firms is found to increase as director ownership increases up to a maximum at 68.2% of ownership, after which it then decreases as director ownership approaches 100% of equity. In addition, the results suggest that firms whose directors are more highly remunerated and who hold directorships in other companies are significantly more profitable. Furthermore, firms in which the owners perceive present management practices to be lacking in structure are found to have significantly lower performance.     

Outdoor management development: the mediating effect of the client organisation

This article reports on a study comparing the impact of an outdoor management development (OMD) programme on delegates from two different client organisations. By keeping the provider constant it is possible to assess how organisational factors mediate the transfer of learning from a development event back to the workplace. The results show that, while the programme had a very positive immediate impact on the delegates from both companies—they felt they had learnt a lot and that they were working better as a team—in only one of the companies was this change sustained back in the work-place. Follow-up interviews with delegates, four months after the event, highlighted that in the company where transfer was not evident, there were considerable organisational barriers. In this instance at least, it was not the OMD programme that was ‘at fault’ but the organisation climate or culture which impeded any transfer of learning.     

CollaborationThe Hewlett-Packard and Intel Partnership

In June 1994, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Intel announced an exciting new collaboration with ramifications for companies worldwide: a partnership to develop what has become known as the Merced chip – a new generation of core microprocessor technology ("architecture") different in kind from its antecedents. This article, reporting a conference speech given late in 1997, provides an eye-witness account of the collaboration as seen at that date by one of the key players. The speaker reflects on the reasons why the two companies got together, the strategic and organisational implications for HP – and the key factors ensuring that the partners continued to work together productively, if not always in perfect harmony.     

Organisational citizenship behaviours and effectiveness: an empirical study in two small insurance companies

The study relates six dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB) at the branch level with several indicators of the effectiveness of 38 branches of two insurance companies. Results suggest that the branches where employees display more OCB are the most effective. These findings are discussed in the context of a scarcity of empirical studies on the topic, despite researchers' assumption that OCB enhances team and organisational effectiveness.     

Competitive advantage and the transformation of value chains over time: The example of a South Korean diversified business group, 1953–2013

We examine the historical evolution of different elements in value chains that create value-added and competitive advantage. This is achieved by using the conceptual model of the ‘smile curve’ with a longitudinal case study of a diversified business group, CJ Group, a former affiliated firm of Samsung Group. We found that the value-added structure graph in the industrialisation period displayed an ‘upside-down U shape’, indicating that production and manufacturing were the most value-adding sectors. However, in the more recent knowledge-based economy period, the graph shows a quite different shape, indicating R&D, firm infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, service, and marketing as sources of value-added. This shows that competitive advantage diversified into other fields to fit with the changed economy. We also investigate what type of organisational structure, strategy, and capabilities were adopted for organisational change. We found an evolution, with an unrelated diversification strategy by altering capabilities from contacts and generic to organisational and technological capabilities.     

对黑龙江企业集团内部会计控制的建议

企业集团化已在黑龙江省经济发展中显现出了重要力量,是黑龙江省老工业基地调整改造中的重要实施者。从加强企业集团内部会计控制的视角分析,目前,黑龙江省的各企业集团,应结合实际情况强化内部会计控制能力。实行控股公司制度组织结构的集团公司应当更多采用目标控制、组织结构控制、风险控制等方式对子公司的经营和投资决策进行控制;实行事业部制度组织结构的集团公司应采用利润中心、成本中心的集中控制的模式。     

Kigyo Shudan: The Formation and Functions of Enterprise Groups

The enterprise groups, formed after the Second World War, and horizontally linking a number of associated companies, are widely accepted as a notable characteristic of the ‘Japanese Industrial Management System’. The purpose of these groups, and therefore their particular contribution to industrial organisational capability, is rooted in the period of their development, the 1950s. Interlocking share ownership within the groups brought a sense of security, allowed managers to exercise control over their companies, and encouraged firms to plan in terms of long-term growth rather than short-term profits. Nevertheless, the objectives and advantages of inter-firm groupings altered over time, and these changes reflected developments in the Japanese economy and in the commercial and organisational needs of companies. This institutional arrangement has been a notable aspect of the Japanese industrial system, characteristically distinct from the Anglo-American economies and a contributor to competitive advantage and differential growth rates.     

Conflicting stories of virtue in UK healthcare: bringing together organisational studies and ethics

In recent years, organisational theorists have been interested in the tensions faced by healthcare organisations. In this paper, these tensions are examined using the virtue approach to ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre. It is argued that although MacIntyre's framework shares many concerns with organisational studies, it supplements the analysis with a focus on moral content and evaluation. By providing moral evaluation of the stories told in organisations, an ethical analysis compels action on a basis that organisational studies does not. Nevertheless, it is the analysis of stories in organisation studies that provides the tools for taking action. The analysis presented here provides an example of how ethics and organisational studies can be brought together to provide a stronger analysis of organisational phenomena. Indeed, it provides support for Nielsen's position that organisational theory and ethics are co-dependent and suggests that greater attention should be paid to ethical concepts in the study of organisational phenomena.     

供应链和虚拟企业:比较及转化

供应链管理和虚拟企业是已经在世界范围所采用的概念。这些概念包括一系列管理、组织和技术问题,公司为了提高竞争能力,开拓市场机遇,建立合作联盟。供应链管理是一种集成的管理思想,从战略上整体地整合供应商和顾客。虚拟企业是一种动态的临时组织形式,不同的企业为了开拓商业机遇而通过合作弥补自身竞争力的不足。虽然他们有各自的特点,但是也有共同点。     

Management Accounting Systems and Organisational Structure

In this paper we present an empirical analysis to test whether organisation configurations and management accounting systems change simultaneously. Using the original application of the fuzzy logic methodology, we analyse the level of development and implementation of the management accounting system and the organisational configuration on a sample of 501 Italian firms. Even though we employ a cross-sectional approach, the results may be interpreted according to the life cycle model. Our findings show that the evolution of the organisational configurations is not always coherent with the relevance assumed by management accounting systems. In particular, we find a large group of companies with a simple organisational configuration and a well-developed management accounting system. We interpret the presence of this cluster dynamically as an intermediate stage of growth towards more complex forms of organisation.