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Work organization conventions and the declining competitiveness of the British shipbuilding industry, 1930-1970
Konventionen der Arbeitsorganisation und der Niedergang der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Britischen Schiffsindustrie 1930-1970
[journal article]
Abstract "This article attributes the declining competitiveness of the British shipbuilding industry from the 1930s to employers' slow and imperfect substitution of bureaucratic for craft conventions of work organization. An explanation is developed for this excess inertia. First, the article maintains that ... view more
"This article attributes the declining competitiveness of the British shipbuilding industry from the 1930s to employers' slow and imperfect substitution of bureaucratic for craft conventions of work organization. An explanation is developed for this excess inertia. First, the article maintains that the interdependent nature of British employers' decision-making on matters of training and work organization tended to "lock-in" individual firms to a particular configuration. Secondly, it is shown how the uncertainty over the need for reform perceived by the majority of builders prevented the more progressive minority from using the industry's collective employers' association to coordinate a timely switch to a more bureaucratic convention. Thirdly, it is argued that once these obstacles were overcome, the process of achieving organizational reform was slowed or even blocked by a lack of trust between labor and management." (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
competitiveness; reform; bureaucracy; industry; enterprise; shipbuilding; historical development; Great Britain; employers' association; confidence; work organization
Classification
National Economy
General History
Economic Sectors
Labor Market Policy
Document language
English
Publication Year
2015
Page/Pages
p. 112-131
Journal
Historical Social Research, 40 (2015) 1
Issue topic
Law and conventions from a historical perspective
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.40.2015.1.112-131
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed