Costing efficiency at the central office of information (COI)

The move from vote‐funding to repayment created uncertainty for staff and managers in the Central Office of Information (COI). Financial systems that had been retrospective had to be replaced with systems that captured key numbers and enabled forecasts to be made and performance against targets to be measured.

COI has developed management accounting and unit costing in ways that have enabled the organization to meet targets and succeed as an Executive Agency and trading fund.     

Evading Surveillance and Making Time: an Ethnographic View of the Japanese Factory Floor in Britain

A core element of the debate surrounding Japanese manufacturing transplants is the capacity of management to suppress employee resistance. This paper reports a study based on an eight-week period of participant observation of a particular form of resistance, fiddles. It argues that the opportunity for fiddling stems from the organization's inability to control its buyer–supplier relationships, temperamental technology, and the ability of workers to manipulate standard operating procedures. Moreover, it suggests that fiddles operate mainly with the consent of supervisors, and ultimately are not in conflict with interests of management as they contribute to production targets.     

PROFESSIONALIZATION AND BRITISH MANAGEMENT PRACTICEPROFESSIONALIZATION AND BRITISH MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: CASE EVIDENCE FROM MEDIUM-SIZED FIRMS IN TWO INDUSTRIAL SECTORS*

High levels of occupational specialization, problems of cross-functional integration and distinct bureaucratic tendencies have traditionally been seen as problems endemic to British management practice. Over the last decade, these problems are expected to have disappeared - or at least diminished - as major developments in management and organizational theory, as well as changing economic circumstances, have redirected management thinking towards ‘new’ ideas of flatter, simpler organizational structures, increased flexibility and decentralization, improvements in the quality of inter-functional relations and the like. Yet, despite these developments, there is comparatively little research that has investigated actual patterns of change within management and, in particular, what is happening in what could be regarded as the mainstream of British industry - namely, ‘ordinary’, medium-sized firms operating in ‘traditional’ industrial sectors. Moreover, rarely does such research focus upon the implications of management change for the strategies of professionalization adopted by competing specialist occupational groups within management. This paper sets out to help fill these gaps, by reporting the findings from case studies of four such firms, taking into account the particular contexts and historical circumstances that have helped shape any such change and drawing out the key influences on changed management practice.     

The Performance of the European Central Bank

The European Monetary Union has been in operation since 1 January 1999. The paper offers an interim assessment of the operations of the European Central Bank (ECB) during this period. It describes how the ECB defined its monetary strategy and carried out its policy. The evaluation offered in the paper is largely positive, the principal objects of criticism being found to stem from the constitution which defines the position and principal objective of the ECB. This constitution embodies an extreme version of Central Bank independence and creates a 'democratic deficit' in consequence. Albeit the operating record is not without some blemishes, for example in regard to the ECB's communication policy. So far, the ECB has benefitted from a favourable macroeconomic conjuncture. This has changed and a more testing time may now be in store.     

Counting angels: a comparison of personnel and HR specialists

This article uses data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to explore the extent to which the characteristics and job‐related activities of specialists who use the title 'human resources' differ from those who use the title 'personnel'. The results demonstrate that specialists using the HR title are better qualified than those using the personnel title and they are more involved with strategic planning. Additionally, employee development is more likely to be included in strategic plans, and there is slightly greater evidence of devolution of responsibility to supervisors where the specialist uses the HR rather than the personnel title. Finally, several practices commonly associated with HRM, such as personality tests, attitude surveys and off‐the‐job training, are more likely to have been adopted in workplaces that have an HR specialist than in those that have a personnel specialist.     

Class Formation and Localism in an Emerging Bureaucracy: British Bank Workers, 1880–1960

This article uses a case study of the spatial and career mobility of bank workers from Lloyds, a leading British bank, to explore the relationship between class formation and spatial mobility. The article argues against the idea that the large‐scale concentration and bureaucratization of the British banking industry in the early years of the twentieth century saw the emergence of a mobile middle‐class spiralist or cosmopolitan. We use archival data from Lloyds Bank to argue that the emergence of Lloyds as a large‐scale national bank involved a compromise with localized interests rather than a detachment of the bank from local concerns. We use data on the career histories of a representative sample of male bank employees to argue that spatial mobility was organized largely within regions and helped to consolidate the prospects of rural bank workers. We argue that London emerged as a distinctive ‘hub’ for banking careers, with significant amounts of movement to and from London from all regions. We therefore demonstrate how localized and rural cultures were sedimented within a large, national bureaucracy, and that a genuine ‘spiralist’ structure did not emerge. En s’appuyant sur une étude de cas relative à la mobilité géographique et professionnelle du personnel de la Lloyds, l’une des premières banques britanniques, cet article examine le lien entre la formation d’une classe et la mobilité spatiale. Il combat l’idée que la concentration et la bureaucratisation à grande échelle du secteur bancaire britannique au début du XXe siècle a fait na? tre une classe moyenne mobile en spirale ou cosmopolite. Les données d’archives de la Lloyds révèlent que son développement en tant que grande banque nationale s’est accompagné d’un compromis avec les intér? ts locaux plutôt que d’une indifférence à l’égard de ces préoccupations. Les informations sur les carrières d’un échantillon représentatif d’employés de banque masculins permettent d’établir que la mobilité géographique a été organisée largement au plan régional, contribuant à consolider les perspectives des employés en zone rurale. Londres est apparu comme un ‘pôle’ particulier dans les carrières bancaires, avec un nombre considérable de mutations vers et de la capitale à partir de toutes les régions. L’article montre ainsi comment des cultures locales et rurales se sont sédimentées au sein d’une importante bureaucratie nationale et qu’aucune structure ‘en spirale’ pure n’en est issue.     

Relational exchanges versus arm’s-length transactions during institutional transitions

How do firms make strategic choices in response to institutional transitions? The literature suggests that with more market-oriented institutional transitions, firms may move from relational exchanges to arm’s-length transactions. However, it remains unclear under what circumstances such strategic transitions would occur. We develop a model to predict that such transitions are contingent upon the multiple facets of a country’s institutional profile, including informal institutions such as national culture and formal institutions that encourage market competition. Our model also specifies industry- and firm-level contingencies affecting these strategic transitions.