The Organization of Business in Modern Britain

The Organization of Business in Contemporary Britain develops a fullaccount of the distinctive characteristics of British business and its forms oforganization. Ackroyd takes the student through the concept of organizationalstructure and introduces different approaches to studying business andorganization.

Stephen Ackroyd is Professor of Organizational Analysis in the Management School of Lancaster University.

List of Figures

xx

List of Tables

xxi

Abbreviations

xxii

Introduction

1

(18)

The approach to organization

1

(4)

The organization of the book

5

(10)

Back to basics

15

(4)

The need for an analysis of structures

19

(25)

How many organizations and what do they do?

19

(6)

What is happening?

25

(6)

The importance of firms and business groups

31

(5)

Three possibilities concerning the economy

36

(8)

The orthodox account of structure

44

(30)

The function/contingency approach to organizations

45

(6)

Organizational types

51

(14)

Explaining the differences in organizational structures

65

(6)

Conclusions-rejecting the orthodox account of structure

71

(3)

The alternative approach to structure

74

(31)

The corporation as a set of relationships

74

(2)

Managers

76

(7)

Managers and owners

83

(7)

Managers and professionals

90

(3)

Management and labour

93

(3)

Management as mediation between stakeholders

96

(5)

A theoretical conclusion

101

(4)

SMEs and business units

105

(32)

What are small firms?

105

(1)

The traditional small firm

106

(9)

Reorganizing the firm

115

(4)

How to achieve flexible output

119

(4)

A middle way?

123

(6)

Beginning to sum up

129

(3)

The knowledge-intensive firm

132

(2)

Conclusions

134

(3)

Large corporations

137

(29)

The importance of large corporations

137

(5)

The explanatory task

142

(2)

Misleading ideas about the development of major companies

144

(2)

The British response to international competition

146

(2)

The importance of capital supply

148

(6)

Some feature of large British firms

154

(3)

Some types of large British company

157

(5)

Conclusion

162

(4)

New corporate forms and the network

166

(26)

Overview

166

(2)

Proposals for the new organization

168

(2)

The post-bureaucracy

170

(5)

Connecting workplace change with corporate change

175

(5)

The network

180

(9)

Conclusions

189

(3)

A national context for business organization

192

(26)

The institutional approach to business

193

(3)

The institutional account of Britain

196

(4)

What about epochal change?

200

(2)

The neo-liberal account of epochal change

202

(7)

The regulationist account of change

209

(6)

Conclusions

215

(3)

British business and globalization

218

(26)

Introduction

218

(1)

The structure and strategy of British multinational companies

219

(4)

In search of the global company

223

(8)

Arguments about economic globalization

231

(5)

Geopolitical blocs and regulation

236

(6)

Conclusion

242

(2)

Towards industrial policy

244

(27)

Introduction

244

(2)

Theoretical reprise

246

(6)

The emergent properties of interorganizational relations

252

(5)

Continuity in some basic patterns of economic activity

257

(3)

What has precipitated change?

260

(2)

Some social consequences of organizational change

262

(3)

The problem of policy

265

(6)

Bibliography

271

(17)

Index

288

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The Organization of Business in Modern Britain

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials