Professionalization and British management practice: case evidence from medium-sized firms in two industrial sectors

Article Abstract:

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. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

United Kingdom, Management, Corporations, Professional socialization, Corporations, British

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The nature and transformation of corporate headquarters: a review of recent literature and a research agenda

Article Abstract:

In this paper we suggest that the study of attempts to secure headquarters level change may now be of increasing significance. Evidence of a wave of HQ level change is beginning to accumulate and requires further investigation. The twin purposes of this paper are: (1) in descriptive terms, to gather such evidence as is already available about the nature and extent of HQ level change; to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the extant literature; to suggest where further descriptive work needs to take place; and (2) in explanatory terms, to build some initial and alternative organizational and managerial theories that could inform the study of HQ change; to propose a medium-term research agenda that can be tested in the field. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Industrial locations, Industrial location

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