Cambridge Studies in Management – serie

The management of buyer-supplier relations has come to be regarded as a key to achieving manufacturing competitiveness, particularly in sectors facing global competition based on both price and quality. This book is a theoretical and empirical exploration of the link between the type of buyer-supplier relations and corporate performance. Dr Sako examines how British and Japanese companies in the electronics industry manage their relationships with buyers and suppliers, the empirical study comprising a three-way comparison of a Japanese customer company, a British customer company, and a Japanese company in Britain, and an analysis of 36 supplier companies in Britain and Japan. Variations of the companies' business practices are assessed in terms of technology, the nature of market competition, the national legal framework, financial structures, employment systems, and the mode of entrepreneurship. The author identifies two distinct approaches in the two countries - the arm's-length contractual relation (ACR) in Britain, and the obligational contractual relation (OCR) in Japan - and argues that the trust and interdependence present in the latter can be a powerful springboard from which to achieve corporate success.

Innovation is a key to corporate success, particularly in times of rapid technological change. This book sheds new light on the introduction of technology in the manufacturing sector. The author considers the use of innovative technology in both Britain and Japan by examining nine firms in each country. He focuses on computerised machine tools (CNC) and shows how the various firms have risen to the challenge of implementing the new technology. Particular emphasis is placed on the differing employment relations in the factories, the nature of operating training and workload distribution. Dr Whittaker identifies fundamentally different approaches in the two countries which have implications for competiveness as well as future innovation. The contrast is especially attractive since Japanese industrial relations is commonly distinguished by its cooperative nature whilst industrial relations in Britain has tended to be more confrontational. These conventional views are challenged with an original perspective on the labour process and new technology.

This book is concerned with the management of organisational change. It focuses on Cadbury Ltd and provides an in-depth study of change within this famous British company. Cadbury Ltd is famous for its pioneering personnel management. One of the purposes of this study is to assess how this established company ethos facilitated change by examining the development and implementation of a capital investment programme that radically changed working practices at the company's Bournville plant in Birmingham. At a more general level the authors develop a theory of organisational change that emphasises the interaction between external market forces and internal management action. This approach unites an emphasis on the structural parameters that limit a firm's capacity for independent change, with a recognition of the vital role performed by influential members of an organisation in initiating and managing change. This book will be of interest to teachers and students of business history, organisational behaviour, industrial relations and industrial sociology.

This book is a study of the relationship between full-time union officials and shop stewards across the whole of British industry (public and private, manufacturing and services) in 1986-91. It is the first major study of union officials for 20 years, and one of the most detailed studies of workplace collective bargaining and union organisation following the recession of the early 1980s. In the wake of recession, union decline, industrial restructuring, anti-union legislation, and changes in union policies (towards a new realism), Britain is said by some commentators to be entering a new era of industrial relations. This book provides a unique body of evidence that throws new light on this claim, and casts serious doubt on its validity. It combines survey, interview, questionnaire and observation data and thus overcomes the well known limitations of both large-scale surveys and individual case studies.

First published in 1984, this book gives a historical account of the worldwide development of the theory and practice of inflation accounting (particularly as applied to the financial accounts of corporations). It is a comprehensive account, both in terms of the historical depth and the international breadth of its coverage. The account of the debate in Britain includes the results of original research by the authors, based on interviews and archive material. The book offers important insights not only into the present state and likely future course of the debate on inflation accounting but also into the whole process of setting financial accounting standards. The exposition is kept at a non-technical level wherever possible, but the reader should ideally have the degree of technical expertise which could be acquired by reading the companion volume, Inflation Accounting: an introduction to the debate, by Geoffrey Whittington.

This book, published in the late 1980s, reproduces articles and reports which were written and gained prominence during the 1984-5 coal dispute in the UK. It is, however, more than a contribution to the history of that dispute and the associated debates about the viability and strategies of the NCB (now British Coal) and its constituent pits. The collection addresses more general issues of industrial and national policy and concerns about the interface of accountancy and economic calculation in industrial relations. The contributions offer contrasting approached to the identification and measurement of enterprise performance, including the value of accounting reports, the assessment of strategies to invest in new technology, the costs and benefits of alternative energy policies and the distinction between the national and enterprise interests. In addition, the editors' introduction and the authors' postscripts consider the contributions of these debates in relation to the progress and outcome of the coal dispute and thereby examine the relationship between politics, industrial muscle and calculative logics in industrial relations.

The most controversial aspect of institutional regeneration in North America and Europe has been the restructuring of labour relations. Media attention has been drawn to the resulting claims of excess employer power: however, supporters of union reform point to the spate of strikes in Western Europe as the predicament that the UK has escaped. In this book, Martyn Wright examines how competitive crisis affected the management of work relations in Britain between 1979 and 1991. Using longitudinal analysis and a wealth of case study material from companies and employers associations, the study moves beyond the normal cross-sectional survey to reveal a complex pattern of procedural and substantive rule change, and illustrates considerable variation in the context to which competitive crisis was harnessed by employers to generate an ongoing momentum for change. Managing Competitive Crisis is a must for students of organisational change.

This book provides a clear and concise summary of the present state of the theory of inflation accounting for students and practitioners. It describes all of the main alternative methods of inflation accounting and illustrates them, using simple numerical examples. The theoretical and practical aspects of each method are discussed, in order to give the reader the framework within which he can evaluate the relative merits of the various practical solutions to the inflation accounting problem which are now being implemented in the UK, USA and elsewhere throughout the English-speaking world. The emphasis throughout is on a comparison of the relative merits of alternative systems, rather than aiming to give a single 'best' solution. Indeed the latter aim is seen as most probably illusory, because different types of accounting information may be needed for different purposes.

Innovation is a key to corporate success, particularly in times of rapid technological change. This book sheds new light on the introduction of technology in the manufacturing sector. The author considers the use of innovative technology in both Britain and Japan by examining nine firms in each country. He focuses on computerised machine tools (CNC) and shows how the various firms have risen to the challenge of implementing the new technology. Particular emphasis is placed on the differing employment relations in the factories, the nature of operating training and workload distribution. Dr Whittaker identifies fundamentally different approaches in the two countries which have implications for competiveness as well as future innovation. The contrast is especially attractive since Japanese industrial relations is commonly distinguished by its cooperative nature whilst industrial relations in Britain has tended to be more confrontational. These conventional views are challenged with an original perspective on the labour process and new technology.

This book is a study of the relationship between full-time union officials and shop stewards across the whole of British industry (public and private, manufacturing and services) in 1986-91. It is the first major study of union officials for 20 years, and one of the most detailed studies of workplace collective bargaining and union organisation following the recession of the early 1980s. In the wake of recession, union decline, industrial restructuring, anti-union legislation, and changes in union policies (towards a new realism), Britain is said by some commentators to be entering a new era of industrial relations. This book provides a unique body of evidence that throws new light on this claim, and casts serious doubt on its validity. It combines survey, interview, questionnaire and observation data and thus overcomes the well known limitations of both large-scale surveys and individual case studies.

The management of buyer-supplier relations has come to be regarded as a key to achieving manufacturing competitiveness, particularly in sectors facing global competition based on both price and quality. This book is a theoretical and empirical exploration of the link between the type of buyer-supplier relations and corporate performance. Dr Sako examines how British and Japanese companies in the electronics industry manage their relationships with buyers and suppliers, the empirical study comprising a three-way comparison of a Japanese customer company, a British customer company, and a Japanese company in Britain, and an analysis of 36 supplier companies in Britain and Japan. Variations of the companies' business practices are assessed in terms of technology, the nature of market competition, the national legal framework, financial structures, employment systems, and the mode of entrepreneurship. The author identifies two distinct approaches in the two countries - the arm's-length contractual relation (ACR) in Britain, and the obligational contractual relation (OCR) in Japan - and argues that the trust and interdependence present in the latter can be a powerful springboard from which to achieve corporate success.

Originally published in 1992, this book examines the development of employers' human resource management and industrial relations policies in Britain. It adopts a broad historical perspective, beginning with the inheritance from the nineteenth century and ending with an analysis of human resource management policies. It focuses on how managers organise the employment relationship, how they control work relations, and how they deal with trade unions and industrial relations. The author examines these in the context of the market within which the firm operates, and the strategy, structure and hierarchy of industrial enterprise. The book shows that historically British employers tended to adopt market-based strategies rather than internal ones.

China has already become the world's second largest economic power, and it currently presents enormous business opportunities. Yet there is still a dearth of information in the West about how Chinese firms are run. In this invaluable 1994 book, Professor Child addresses this lack, examining management in China in all its different aspects. He covers the development of Chinese management during the period of economic reform in a number of areas including enterprise leadership, decision making, the management of marketing and purchasing transactions, the work roles of senior managers, personnel practices and reward systems. The experience of foreign firms entering joint ventures with Chinese enterprises is also reviewed in detail. The book provides a comprehensive survey of the subject, written on the basis of field work and direct contacts which the author has with Chinese enterprises.

Originally published in 1992, this book examines the development of employers' human resource management and industrial relations policies in Britain. It adopts a broad historical perspective, beginning with the inheritance from the nineteenth century and ending with an analysis of human resource management policies. It focuses on how managers organise the employment relationship, how they control work relations, and how they deal with trade unions and industrial relations. The author examines these in the context of the market within which the firm operates, and the strategy, structure and hierarchy of industrial enterprise. The book shows that historically British employers tended to adopt market-based strategies rather than internal ones.

Many people believe that industrial relations have been transformed. For some, current developments are the result of new human resource management techniques which have overcome adversarial workplace traditions. For others, old attitudes remain, their expression stifled by vigorous competition in product and labour markets. Willing Slaves? explores these competing claims. It shows that managers have come to question past approaches to employee relations. Nowadays they believe that 'winning workers' hearts and minds' is a crucial part of successful management. Equally, however, managers have not yet found ways to make their new ideas work well. Workers continue to place little trust in management, inefficient working practices persist, and attempts to build a 'new industrial relations' have fallen short of the mark. Willing Slaves? concludes by arguing that the best way forward is for organisations to commit themselves to long term labour relations policies which enable workers to participate in management decision-making.

Accounting as Social and Institutional Practice is the first major collection of critical and socio-historical analyses of accounting. It gathers together work by scholars of international renown on the social and institutional nature of accounting to address the conditions and consequences of accounting practice. Challenging conventional views that accounting is a technical practice, and that it comprises little more than bookkeeping, this collection demonstrates the importance of analysing the multiple arenas in which accounting emerges and operates. As accounting continues to gain in importance in so many spheres of social life, an understanding of the conditions and consequences of this calculative technology is vital. Its relevance extends far beyond the discipline of accounting. This book will be of considerable interest for specialists in organisational analysis, sociologists, and political scientists, as well as the general reader interested in understanding the increasing significance of accounting in contemporary society.

This book offers a critique of recent developments in the study of organizational structure in the USA. There has been a profusion of new paradigms offered in the USA and this has fragmented the field. Many of these paradigms share an anti-management quality, painting managers in an increasingly negative light. This book examines five major, contemporary US organizational theories: population-ecology, institutional, resource dependence, agency and transaction cost economics. Each of these theories and their attendant research is critically examined and severe problems are identified in either theoretical coherence or empirical validity. Lex Donaldson argues that it is possible to reintegrate the field by taking structural contingency theory as the core theory and adding on to it selective propositions from the newer paradigms. He also offers suggestions for needed reforms in the US academic cultural and institutional system.

It has been claimed that organisation theory is in a state of 'crisis'. This book traces the history of the orthodox systems theory paradigm in organisation studies from its foundations in positivist sociology, through its theoretical and empirical development under structural-functionalism, to its recent deconstruction by postmodernists. The analysis offers general support for the 'sociology-in-crisis' thesis, but takes issue with one of its main propositions, that paradigms are incommensurable. It is argued that paradigms are porous rather than hermetic phenomena, a fact which has profound implications for the theory building process. Based on language-game philosophy, a dialectical theory is developed to illustrate how seemingly exclusive idioms can be mediated. The enquiry provides a pluri-paradigm method for organisational research, and an epistemological framework for postmodern organisational analysis.

In recent years policy makers and scientists have become increasingly interested in the economics of science, and in particular in the relationship between accounting and science. This book, originally published as a special issue of the journal Science in Context , provides a truly interdisciplinary approach to this subject. The contributors explore, in a number of different ways, the constitutive role that practices of economic calculation play in the conduct of science and the forms of economic life within which science is embedded. Challenging conventional views, they suggest that if scientific and accounting practices are to be properly understood, they must be studied in relation to a complex background of specialist communities, funding institutions and demands for public accountability. This book will be invaluable for scholars and policy makers working in the field.

China has already become the world's second largest economic power, and it currently presents enormous business opportunities. Yet there is still a dearth of information in the West about how Chinese firms are run. In this invaluable 1994 book, Professor Child addresses this lack, examining management in China in all its different aspects. He covers the development of Chinese management during the period of economic reform in a number of areas including enterprise leadership, decision making, the management of marketing and purchasing transactions, the work roles of senior managers, personnel practices and reward systems. The experience of foreign firms entering joint ventures with Chinese enterprises is also reviewed in detail. The book provides a comprehensive survey of the subject, written on the basis of field work and direct contacts which the author has with Chinese enterprises.