John Child

Maintenance of Occupational Control: The Case of Professions.

Contemporary conditions relevant to the maintenance of occupational control are examined for five professions (accounting, architecture, civil engineering, law, and medicine) in the United Kingdom and the United States as an impetus for the analysis of control by occupations in general. Four areas in which conditions affecting occupational control are analyzed include: restriction of access to the occupations knowledge base; context of professional employment; power and authority in the relationship of client and professional; and relationships between the profession and agencies of the state. Differences across countries and between professions are described, and notations are made regarding generalizability to a broader set of occupations.

Reshaping work : the Cadbury experience

Preface Introduction Part I. Cadbury Ltd and its Context: 1. Cadbury Ltd in its sector 2. The Bourneville factory: from greenfield development to maturity 3. Strategic development since the Second World War Part II. The Accomplishment of Innovations: 4. Technical change and the investment programme 5. Organisational structure, occupational control and autonomy 6. The management of industrial relations 7. The hollow goods project 8. The automatic packing of boxed assortments Part III. Cadburys and Themes in Work Organisation: 9. The context and process of Cadburys transformation 10. Managerial strategies at Cadburys Notes References Index.

New technology and developments in management organization

New technology can provide the means to institute considerable changes in management organization, both through its application to operations and through its direct use in managerial work. These changes are expected to lead to smaller more cohesive management structures on the basis of the advantages offered by new technology for control and integration. However, a number of organizational design choices are involved with the introduction of new technology. These may present uncertainties, and it is not expected that the changes discussed will be appropriate to all kinds of organization. In Britain, there are also particular institutional and cultural barriers to the full realization of new technologys managerial potential.

Industrial Decision-making under China's Reform, 1985-1988

The intention of Chinas economic reform programme has been to shift the governance of economic relations from bureaucratic towards market co-ordina tion. The decentralization of decision-making from administrative bodies to enterprises and, by extension, the delegation within enterprises of specific deci sions to a trained body of managers, have been key elements in this programme. This paper examines the changes in levels of decision-making experienced by six State enterprises between 1985 and 1988, a period during which the reform was being introduced nationwide. It concludes that the managers of these enterprises did secure additional autonomy to make decisions of strategic significance, but that this autonomy is uncertain and bounded. It is liable to be rescinded as the result of sudden changes in government policy and it is bounded by local rela tional obligations. These constraints upon management expose the dynamics of negotiated dependency relations in a context characterized by underdevelopment in both bureaucratic and market modes of economic co-ordination.

Corporate Goals, Managerial Objectives, and Organizational Structures in British and West German Companies:

Arguments regarding the presence of similarities and differences in management and organization across countries draw attention to the potential relevance of culture, contextual contingencies, and economic-cum-political system. These are examined by reference to comparisons of corporate goals, managerial objectives, and modes of organizational structuring (particularly around the investment decision process) in British and West German companies. The findings reinforce the view that in capitalist systems high profitability and growth are dominant corporate goals. In some respects, the structure adopted by companies in the two countries appeared to match their contingent conditions, although differences in decision making were consistent with a culturalist explanation. Where contrasts emerged in the objectives and opinions held by senior managers it was not always clear whether these were more likely to be a reflection of cultural factors rather than, for example, the generally greater success of the German companies.

The Development of Professionalism As An Issue in British Marketing

Examines the history of professionalism as an issue in British marketing. Investigates attempts made to establish professional attributes in British marketing and the model of professionalism adopted. Looks at limits placed on the progression of marketing with regard to professionalism. States that the ideal typical model of professionalism has never been a valid framework for marketing, in that the structural bases of the occupation are of a different order and require individual analysis.

Discussion Note: Divisionalization and Size: A Comment on the Donaldson/Grinyer Debate

University of Aston, Management Centre. Birmingham, England In his rejoinder, Grinyer acknowledges the force of Donaldson’s argument that divisionalization may be an appropriate response to problems which increasingly beset a functionally structured organization due to complexities arising from product diversity. He concludes, however, that a minimum size is a necessary condition for divisionalization to be sensible and that, therefore, the degree of diversification ’has no effect on structure below the threshold’. Grinyer refers to his friend who ran several unrelated business activities, including a decorating firm and a hotel. He points out that it would have been

Participation, Organization, and Social Cohesion

There is a demand for the extension of participation in organizational decision-making. If realized, this should strengthen the stability of a democratic society through providing more people with a meaningful experience of democratic processes. At the same time, however, organizations are continuing to become bigger and their control more centralized. This trend is illustrated for Britain. It leads to an increasing remoteness of decision making on policy issues away from employees and members of the public. The effects of bureaucratization, which accompanies growth, exacerbate the remoteness. So far as participation is concerned, a growing contradiction is therefore emerging between social ideology and social reality, and this is not being given adequate recognition. The likely result is a weakening commitment to collective social objectives and a declining perceived legitimacy of social institutions. It is concluded that a resolution of this problem would be assisted by recognizing how the economic advantages of large-scale organization have been exaggerated and how there are organizational design possibilities for avoiding the socially less desirable aspects of bureaucracy.

Class Perceptions and Social Identification of Industrial Supervisors

This verse, dating back some fifty years, illustrates how it used to be possible for someone being promoted to a supervisory position to perceive that he was crossing a major class boundary. Up until the inter‐war years, the position of supervisor in British industry, typically the “foreman”, was clearly differentiated from that of the manual worker, even though both parties usually shared a manual background. Supervisors were still the main agents of capitalist ownership over the labour force. As such they were granted considerable control over conditions of employment and methods of work. They enjoyed favourable job security at a time when unemployment often brought personal economic disaster to manual workers. A distinctive mode of dress, particularly the bowler hat, symbolised this superiority over labour. Within their local communities, many supervisors had superior standing as minor property owners and rentiers.