1,720,990 research outputs found
‘Keeping unbroken ways’: the role of the Railway Clearing House Secretariat in British freight transportation, c1923-c1947
No full textWith the amalgamation of Britain’s rail network in 1923, the Railway Clearing House, (RCH), role in co-ordinating operating and commercial decision making might have been expected to diminish. Instead the Clearing House secretariat extended its involvement in pricing and co-ordination between the ‘big four’ railway companies and even became the basis for the new nationalised industry in 1947. The RCH offered a venue for discussion and negotiation, where routines of articulation and codification extended those of the individual railways. The evidence presented here confirms the existence of distinctive organisation solutions in the British economy outside of the centralised multi-divisional firm
Divisional Train Control and the Emergence of Dynamic Capabilities: The Experience of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, c1923-c1939
No full textThis paper explores the implementation of a centralised system of Train Control on the London Midland and Scottish Railway, (LMS), to collect, collate and analyse information required for monitoring the conveyance of traffic and use of assets. The paper provides evidence for the emergence of dynamic capabilities and cautions how these concepts are used in practice. The articulation and codification of experience that defines Zollo and Winters (2003) organisational learning is used to detail the emergence of a more systematic approach to the management of a rail network. The purpose of the paper is to inform the history of management techniques as a set of routines and to offer caution in too rigorous interpretation of what constitutes specific operating routines as opposed to a separate dynamic capability
Job analysis on the LMS: mechanisation and modernisation c.1930-c.1939
No full textThis paper explores the development of job analysis by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in the 1930s. It argues that historians have criticised the management decisions made by railway companies during the inter-war period without having examined the process by which these decisions were reached. Only by examining the process of managerial decision-making using internal company documentation can such claims be justified. The paper examines the market environment of inter-war freight haulage at LMS, followed by a review of the terminal handling process. This provides the context for an analysis of the contribution of Lewis C. Ord and job analysis to the modernisation and mechanisation of LMS terminal. The paper concludes that, while lacking financial sophistication, the LMS, by reflecting upon internal processes, delivered more efficient although not necessarily more economical working
Passengers, citizens, customers: London transport transformed 1977–1987
No full textThis paper examines a transformation in the corporate control of London’s transport between 1977 and 1987. We offer a detailed case study explaining how a corporatist consensus broke down, what replaced it, and why. By 1977, London Transport was a centralised monopoly captured by its producer groups while passengers were treated as passive recipients. Two alternatives presented themselves: a utility maximising perspective, empowering passengers as citizens, or a cost-minimising perspective construing passengers as customers. After a period of conflict, central government intervened to disaggregate London Transport as an organisation while keeping its monopoly of provision intact. We assess this complicated transformation, arguing that there was a pivot from enterprise-level to product-level orientated logics visible in the day-to-day operations, interactions, and reporting systems. Using techniques later characterised as New Public Management, senior officials re-configured London Transport’s dynamic capabilities towards commercial imperatives, successfully transforming its business model.</p
Enterprise logic vs product logic: the development of GE’s computer product line
No full textThe following article focuses on corporate strategies at General Electric (GE) and how corporate-level interventions impacted the market performance of the firm’s general purpose commercial mainframe product set in the period 1960–1968. We show that in periods of both divisional independent planning and corporate-level planning strategic governance, central decisions interfered in the execution of GE’s product strategy. GE’s institutional ‘enterprise logic’ negatively impacted the ‘product logic’ of its computer product line leading to a weakened position in the market for these systems
Navigating the M-form: product scope review and the development of the General Electric computer department
No full textThis article seeks to explore the process whereby General Electric (GE) entered the computer industry during the mid-late 1950s. We explore the articulation of an internally contested business model through the study of the Product Scope Review (PSR) meeting which took place in October 1957. The article provides evidence of the difficulties surrounding the management of complex high technology industry in a large multi-divisional firm with competing calls on resources, and where a fundamental new technology disrupts established product lines. GE's attempt to manage the M-Form highlights the contradictions between decentralisation and a desire to retain vertical and horizontal economies
Dataset supporting University of Southampton doctoral thesis"Can audit deliver? A multi-angle investigation of how core structures shape auditor competence and independence"
No full textDataset supporting University of Southampton doctoral thesis Mithani, V (2025) "Can audit deliver? A multi-angle investigation of how core structures shape auditor competence and independence"
Data is available 'on request' to bone fide researchers with ethical clearance. Please complete the attached form.</span
Engineering and the family in business: Blanche Coules Thornycroft, naval architecture and engineering design
No full textThis paper seeks to examine and contextualise the role of Blanche Thornycroft within her family business of John I. Thornycroft in the first half of the twentieth century. The role of Blanche in assisting her father and, after his death, the Thornycroft Company in collecting experimental data informed the design of many vessels. Her role in testing Coastal Motor Boats is explored using the archival material discovered during the ARHC funded project ‘Business, government and the workplace: John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, and the Great War'
Britain’s first net zero: turning the lights on and the railways off 1953-1973
No full textThis paper assesses a major transition in energy usage and distribution in the UK between 1953-73 as domestic coal gave way to electricity, and a centralised electricity generation and distribution system reached every home in the country. Our analysis significantly extends and re-interprets the business history of the National Grid by exploring the consequences of its completion. We argue the National Grid facilitated the removal of the railways as an energy distribution network but enabled of prototype ‘Net Zero’ policies in the context of atmospheric pollution. We tie these themes together to conclude that the construction of the national grid was a major environmental success but removed an essential rationale for much of the rail network
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