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Article
Publication date: 1 December 1966

There can be few who will regret the departure of 1966. As he makes his way towards that dim hall where the years are supposed to sit on their granite columns there will be few…

Abstract

There can be few who will regret the departure of 1966. As he makes his way towards that dim hall where the years are supposed to sit on their granite columns there will be few sighs at the parting. The year has been ‘a holy terror’ to almost everybody. Contraction has been its forte and uncertainty its foible. There have been severe restraints on enterprise, the crushing of many hopes and an air of apathy verging on despair. Future historians may well describe contemporary events as taking place ‘in the year of the Freeze’, much as it was once common to say ‘in the year of the French Revolution’.

Details

Work Study, vol. 15 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0043-8022

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1967

DURING some comments on the brain drain last month it was remarked that work study technologists stood on the periphery. Suddenly they have been moved right to the centre as the…

Abstract

DURING some comments on the brain drain last month it was remarked that work study technologists stood on the periphery. Suddenly they have been moved right to the centre as the result of a communication from Dr. Robert N. Lehrer. He is among the six American work study experts best known to the profession in this country, ranking with Barnes and Mundel as having contributed much to a right appreciation of the subject's value and its techniques.

Details

Work Study, vol. 16 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0043-8022

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1966

IT is a promising outlook for the future that Fairfield's new management has almost at the outset organized three courses on work study for the shop stewards. Twenty‐six of these…

Abstract

IT is a promising outlook for the future that Fairfield's new management has almost at the outset organized three courses on work study for the shop stewards. Twenty‐six of these shipyard workers have already been to school again at Esher Place, the college of the Electrical Trades Union, wrestling with stop watches and involved in unusual calculations.

Details

Work Study, vol. 15 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0043-8022

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1970

Function libraries, and indeed the majority of organisations, especially those operating on a commercial basis or utilising public funds, consist of material and human structures…

Abstract

Function libraries, and indeed the majority of organisations, especially those operating on a commercial basis or utilising public funds, consist of material and human structures. The leaders of the human structure utilise personnel and materials in the pursuit of certain goals. Brech itemises four main elements in this process of planning and regulating enterprise activities. They comprise:

Details

New Library World, vol. 72 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1966

Mr Norman Longley, Chairman of the CITB, helped by his two senior assistants, Mr E. F. L. Brech, Chief Executive, and Mr H. B. Verity, Secretary, held a press conference recently…

Abstract

Mr Norman Longley, Chairman of the CITB, helped by his two senior assistants, Mr E. F. L. Brech, Chief Executive, and Mr H. B. Verity, Secretary, held a press conference recently for the purpose of presenting a summary of progress, to announce the rate of levy for 1966/67 and to give advance information of the Board's proposals to the Minister for the new grants scheme to take effect as from 1st August 1966. But equally important, said Mr Longley, its purpose was also to enlist the aid of the trade press in putting over to the industry the whole aim and intention behind the Board's work. If the story going the rounds is true, that one of the Board's advisory inspectors, finding the director of the — not so small — firm on whom he had called not available, was asked to leave a sample and call back the following week, there seems to be plenty of room for training at management level.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 8 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1988

Laurie Mullins and Paul Aldrich

An integrated model of management and managerial behaviour linked to the process of management development is presented. A conceptual base is provided for understanding…

Abstract

An integrated model of management and managerial behaviour linked to the process of management development is presented. A conceptual base is provided for understanding relationships among areas of general management theory. The contrasting ideas of various writers are rationalised in terms of both organisational and social responsibilities of management. A useful framework for discussion and adaptation, and for identifying future areas of research is provided. Studies can concentrate on both the importance of each area of the model and on their interrelationships.

Details

Journal of Management Development, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0262-1711

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 September 2011

Lee D. Parker and Philip Ritson

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and critique Lyndall Urwick's long‐term advocacy of scientific management and its influence upon management thought.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and critique Lyndall Urwick's long‐term advocacy of scientific management and its influence upon management thought.

Design/methodology/approach

An analysis and critique of Urwick's published writings across 60 years, on the subject of scientific management and organizations, particularly linking his work and arguments to the influence of Frederick Taylor, also positioning him relative to the thinking of leading thinkers such as Henri Fayol.

Findings

This paper argues that the key to understanding his legacy lies in his unique and changing definition of “scientific management”. This was broader than the definition applied by most of his contemporaries and inspired his integrationist project of assimilating Taylorist scientific management into a raft of developing schools of management thought.

Research limitations/implications

Urwick's legacy included a lifetime campaign to reconcile scientific management with succeeding schools of thought, today's management literature stereotyping of some of his contemporary thinkers, and a contribution to management literature's predilection for the labelling of theories and principles.

Practical implications

The paper argues for returning to original sources to accurately understand the intentions and arguments of early founders of many aspects of today's management practice. It also alerts us to the proclivity of management theory and practice to opt for convenient labels that may represent a variety of historical and contemporary meanings.

Originality/value

The paper offers a critical reflection and assessment of the longest standing advocate of scientific management in the management literature.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1955

AN interesting comment from the Salisbury and South Wilts team of industrialists who put the first Local Productivity Council Circuit Scheme into operation in their area suggests…

Abstract

AN interesting comment from the Salisbury and South Wilts team of industrialists who put the first Local Productivity Council Circuit Scheme into operation in their area suggests that this scheme may prove invaluable in awakening general interest in, and in giving practical impetus to, increased productivity at all levels.

Details

Work Study, vol. 4 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0043-8022

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1965

A LEICESTER firm of shoe manufacturers recently cut down its basic patterns from between 30 and 40 to six. The effect was to increase production by 2,400 pairs a week and reduce…

Abstract

A LEICESTER firm of shoe manufacturers recently cut down its basic patterns from between 30 and 40 to six. The effect was to increase production by 2,400 pairs a week and reduce work in progress and the stock of material in hand by a third. There has also been an increase in the earnings of operatives and a saving of a week in the time between planning and despatching orders.

Details

Work Study, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0043-8022

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2005

Ian Smith and Trevor Boyns

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Fayol's ideas on both British management thought and practice.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Fayol's ideas on both British management thought and practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents a schematic which seeks to illustrate the links between the various strands of scientific management theory, especially that of Fayol, in Britain between the 1920s and the 1960s/1970s and, for the same period, the links between the theory and practice of scientific management. The links indicated in the schematic are assessed first through an examination of the development of British management thought, in particular the exemplification of Fayol's ideas by Lyndall Fownes Urwick and the British neoclassical school. Using archival evidence from a small number of engineering companies, the impact on practice of the ideas of Fayol and other aspects of scientific management is then examined.

Findings

The paper concludes that, while Fayol's theoretical influence has stood the test of time, his impact on practice was much more limited.

Originality/value

By focusing on the historical impact on practice of management theory, this paper not only provides a basis for future research by business and management historians, but also throws light on the relevance for practice of theory, an issue of relevance for all theoreticians and management practitioners.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 43 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

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