Willing Slaves? explores recent developments in employee relations. It argues that nowadays managers believe that winning workers' hearts and minds is a crucial element of successful management. Yet despite the introduction of new policies, managers have not succeeded in this aim. Workers still place little trust in management and the climate of relations in industry is still one of "them and us." This book argues that the only way to achieve cooperation at work is for managers to take account of workers' views when making decisions.

This book provides a socio-historical analysis of accounting. It is the first major collection to address 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 such a calculative technology is vital. This book demonstrates the value of analyzing accounting work in relation to developments in accounting, organizational analysis, sociology and political science, and provides a critical perspective on the conditions and consequences of accounting...

It has been claimed that organization theory is in a state of 'crisis'. This book traces the history of the orthodox systems theory paradigm in organization 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...

This volume is concerned with the intellectual intersections between the history and sociology of science and the history and sociology of accounting. The various chapters describe a broad shift from concerns for the scientific credentials of accounting to a recognition of the constitutive role that accounting plays for science. They explore the links between the ideals of scientific objectivity and different administrative and political values, look at laboratory practice in social context, and evaluate the emerging interest in the economics of science. The volume as a whole considers the...

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 computerized 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 operator training and workload distribution. Dr....

This book is concerned with the management of organisational change and focuses on Cadbury Ltd.

This book is a study of the relationship between full-time union officials and shop stewards across the whole of British industry in 1986-87. It is the first major study of union officials for twenty years, and one of the most detailed studies of workplace collective bargaining and union organization following the recession of the early 1980s. In the wake of recession, union decline and industrial restructuring, Britain is said by some commentators to be entering "a new industrial relations." This book provides a unique body of evidence that throws new light on this claim, and casts serious...

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...

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...

In Managing Competitive Crisis Martyn Wright examines how competitive crisis affected the management of work relations in Britain between 1979 and 1991. Based on longitudinal research and interviews with fifty major companies and employers associations, Managing Competitive Crisis is a unique book of topical interest for students of organizational behavior, human resource management and industrial relations and for those seeking to understand the future direction of European political economy.