Search results
1 – 10 of over 2000Where better than Bristol to consider education for a prosperous industrial future. I am using the word industrial in the same sense as it is used in the concept of Industry Year…
Abstract
Where better than Bristol to consider education for a prosperous industrial future. I am using the word industrial in the same sense as it is used in the concept of Industry Year, to sum up all those practical, productive and commercial endeavours which serve people's needs and generate the wealth that supports a caring society. Industry Year has focused our attention on the importance of wealth‐creation. Although it has its detractors, the theme has generally been taken up with enthusiasm by educationists. Interestingly, some clearly believe that the campaign is one designed for education alone, and not addressed to the whole “anti‐industrial culture” in society at large.
Suzanne J. Konzelmann, Victoria Chick and Marc Fovargue-Davies
The debate about corporate purpose is a recurring one that has re-emerged today. What should be the guiding principles of business: the pursuit of profit or a contribution to…
Abstract
The debate about corporate purpose is a recurring one that has re-emerged today. What should be the guiding principles of business: the pursuit of profit or a contribution to public interest? We trace key elements in this debate in Britain and America, from the interwar years, when John Maynard Keynes and Adolf Berle made important contributions, to the 1970s, when events ushered in a return to laissez-faire and the rise to dominance of the shareholder primacy model of corporate governance and purpose, to today. Both the earlier and the current debates are centered around whether we see business institutions as strictly private entities, transacting with their suppliers, workers, and customers on terms agreed with or imposed upon these groups, or as part of society at large and therefore expected to contribute to what society deems to be its interests. Whether current developments will ultimately produce a shift in corporate purpose akin to the one that followed the Second World War remains to be seen. But the parallels to the interwar debates, and the uncertain economic, political, and social environments in which they took place, are striking. Our objective is to see what might be learned from the past to inform the current direction of thought concerning capitalism and corporate purpose.
Details
Keywords
A shortage of support‐worthy inventions resulted in the State‐backed National Research Development Corporation returning £1m of funds to the Government last year. It's an example…
Abstract
A shortage of support‐worthy inventions resulted in the State‐backed National Research Development Corporation returning £1m of funds to the Government last year. It's an example of how inflation is crippling one of Britain's most valuable resources — ideas. Alec Snobel reports.
Luis Antonio Orozco and Olga Lucía Anzola-Morales
This paper aims to present the Colombian Alejandro López Restrepo as a classic management thinker from the first half of the twentieth century and discuss his ideas in the light…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the Colombian Alejandro López Restrepo as a classic management thinker from the first half of the twentieth century and discuss his ideas in the light of Anglo-Saxon authors at that time and his contributions as a professor, manager and public servant.
Design/methodology/approach
Bibliographic material including López’s books and essays and their biography published by Mayor (2001) are reviewed to organize a new reading of López as a management thinker and practitioner.
Findings
Beyond several classical managerial thinkers, López reconceptualized scientific management with a critical discussion of classical economic theory using sociology and psychology to present a unique conception of work, enterprise and efficiency as a public service that gives sense to individual and social realization to face the future and create development.
Research limitations/implications
Techniques as critical biography and interpretation of data have not been used, instead the aim to contribute to the literature of management history a Latin American’ thinker.
Practical implications
Including López as a classical management thinker can improve the study of management history. His life and ideas give new reflexive insight to understand the development of management in Colombia and serve to inspire administrators to seek improvements in society.
Originality/value
The paper offers a new approach toward studying Alejandro López beyond previous sociological work by Mayor (2001) with the discussion of the contributions in the lenses of managerial practices and theoretical insights at that time.
Details
Keywords
MPE Ltd the engineering, electronic power supply and filter manufacturer announce that they have acquired Pyatt & Pearce Ltd, a leading U.K. manufacturer of screened rooms and…
Abstract
MPE Ltd the engineering, electronic power supply and filter manufacturer announce that they have acquired Pyatt & Pearce Ltd, a leading U.K. manufacturer of screened rooms and shielding systems.
In the boardroom it is performance, not conformance, that counts. Yet a rigorous analysis and review of board activities is rarely undertaken in any company, never in most. The…
Abstract
In the boardroom it is performance, not conformance, that counts. Yet a rigorous analysis and review of board activities is rarely undertaken in any company, never in most. The changing basis and realities of corporate power since the introduction of the concept of the joint stock company are identified and some of the contemporary problems are indicated. A case is argued for an audit of board strategy, structure, style and performance. Proposals are made for the conduct of such an audit and its essential elements.
Details
Keywords
What has happened to research and development in this recession? With official R & D statistics only available up to 1978, it has been virtually impossible to tell. So the CBI…
Abstract
What has happened to research and development in this recession? With official R & D statistics only available up to 1978, it has been virtually impossible to tell. So the CBI carried out its own survey: this article sets out the results.
The purpose of this paper is to examine two (accidental and inevitable) reasons why W.H. Beveridge, who in 1936/1937 had rejected all of the elements of Keynes’s General Theory…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine two (accidental and inevitable) reasons why W.H. Beveridge, who in 1936/1937 had rejected all of the elements of Keynes’s General Theory, came to accept it enthusiastically in the 1940s.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper answers this question in three steps. First, it distinguishes apparently changeable factors in Beveridge’s views, from consistent ones. Second, it looks for factors of the latter type in his three goals for economics. Third, it compares his goals with those of Keynes.
Findings
Beveridge’s three goals overlapped with Keynes’s ideals for economics and economists, and this is not historically accidental: economics should be useful as a basis for verification by fresh observations (as an exact science); economic knowledge should be useful in business and policy-making processes (for new kinds of educated professions); and economic studies requires a wide range of related subjects (a liberal education).
Research limitations/implications
This paper attempts to clarify the cognitive assumptions of the two economists. This clarification can contribute to understanding the process and reasons behind Beveridge’s acceptance of Keynesian economic theory and policies on a theoretical level.
Originality/value
This paper examines previously ignored reasons for Beveridge’s acceptance of Keynesian economics. Moreover, it suggests certain pre-analytic assumptions concerning the co-existence of social insurance and full employment policies. This perspective will be useful for historians of economics and the welfare state.
Details
Keywords
This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and…
Abstract
This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.
Details
Keywords
With past evidence suggesting a close relationship between Minimum Lending Rate and the buoyancy — or stagnation — of the industrial property market, the current level of interest…
Abstract
With past evidence suggesting a close relationship between Minimum Lending Rate and the buoyancy — or stagnation — of the industrial property market, the current level of interest rates brings no cause for optimism. But, short‐term financial constraints apart, developers report an increasing take‐up of smaller factory and warehouse units. Some attribute this to a revival of Britain's entrepreneurial spirit.