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In many ways TRW is the prototypical modern U.S. multinational. The exceptional difference is that in recent years it has wrestled with the problems of managing scale and complexity more energetically and perhaps more imaginatively than most conglomerates. Building on the bedrock of classic decentralized management—the same stuff that General Electric pioneered in the Fifties, now the standard operating structure of most U.S. multinationals—TRW has tried desperately to modify some of the increasingly apparent shortcomings of decentralization. While acknowledging that most key decisions bearing on a particular business must be made by autonomous managers using their best judgment, TRW has sought not to be a holding company operation, where management is essentially passive, but rather to bestow broad direction and strategic vision from headquarters. The architect of this program is TRW chairman Ruben Mettler. One of his key lieutenants in this effort is Edward M. Foley, vice president of planning and development. When ex‐accountant Ted Foley arrived at TRW's Cleveland headquarters in the early Seventies, after a succession of operating roles within TRW, company planning was 100 percent decentralized. His mission: to improve the “balance” (perhaps Mettler's favorite word) between divisional independence and top management's perceptions of where future challenges and opportunities lay. TRW was seeking evolutionary change without tampering with their basically decentralized corporate culture. It was an ambitious program with many pitfalls and inherent contradictions. And the struggle for “balance” isn't over yet, as Ted Foley candidly reveals in the following interview with Planning Review.

Organizing a communications function for a “global” company and focusing its marketing image offer rare opportunities and challenges. Yet it is possible to do so, and to do it profitably.

Affirmative Action in the USA involves a broad panoply of activities designed to ensure the integration of women, minorities, persons with disabilities and the over‐40 veterans of the Vietnam era at all levels of a company's work force. Such activities are described for one company, TRW Inc.

This paper investigates the adoption, structure, and function of dispute resolution procedures in the nonunion workplace. Whereas grievance procedures in unionized workplaces have been an important area of study in the field of industrial relations, research on dispute resolution procedures in nonunion workplaces has lagged behind. As a result, our knowledge of the development of nonunion procedures remains relatively limited. Similarly, with a few noteworthy exceptions (e.g. Lewin, 1987, 1990), our knowledge of workplace grievance activity is almost entirely based on research conducted in unionized settings. Given the major differences in the institutional contexts of union and nonunion workplaces in the United States, existing ideas about workplace dispute resolution developed in the unionized setting will likely require significant modification in order to understand dispute resolution procedures and activity in the nonunion workplace. Issues relating to dispute resolution in the nonunion workplace are of increasing importance to public policy given the combination of continued stagnation in levels of union representation and mounting concerns over rising levels of employment litigation in the courts. Knowing what nonunion dispute resolution procedures look like and how they function will help answer the question of what role these procedures may play in the future governance of the workplace.

TRW and the American business sector in general is faced with a crisis that is not only a financial crisis. We are faced with increasing competition and are questioning our ability to respond. We have identified the problem, we have analysed the competition, and now we understand why their products are gaining market share. We have also identified the potential solutions. Discusses the concepts of total quality management and continuous process improvement as a solution. Focuses on the defence industry, and TRW in particular; however the principles do have broader applicability to all American businesses.

Automating the assembly of an existing product is not always easy, particularly if its redesign cannot be cost‐justified. Anna Kochan reports from TRW Torrix on the outskirts of Paris.

Dejando huella, the concept of leaving a legacy for all to see, has helped to establish a culture of success at a plant in a border area known for cultural clashes, discrimination, stereotyping, workplace conflict and language difficulties. Established in April 1992 as an automobile airbag and side‐impact‐module manufacturer in TRW’s multinational operations, TRW Occupant Restraints de Chihuahua was set a tough mission by its American parent. It had to set up on a green‐field site, establish advanced manufacturing practices, introduce several new products and deliver as many perfect units as possible to sister plants in the USA – all with 100 percent Mexican employees and management.