Abstract
This chapter describes a set of mainly sociological ideas and arguments which have been associated with a loose grouping of academics and writers working at the margins of British academic sociology in the 1970s and 1980s. It also explores the way in which this set of ideas was influential in the Department of Industry for a time, especially in the period leading up to the establishment of the Finniston Committee of Inquiry into the Engineering Profession. The central plank in the argument was that British culture consistently undervalues the practical business of making things. This is particularly marked in the disdain that the British show for manufacturing industry. This anti-manufacturing ethos pervaded Government thinking, and is equally to be found in much of British social science.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson, D. (1988) ‘Sociology’s bias against business’ The Director, June, pp. 120–1.
Armstrong, P.J. (1978a) ‘The Abandonment of Productive Intervention in British Management Teaching Syllabi’, Warwick Paper in Industrial Relations no. 15, School of Industrial and Business Studies, University of Warwick.
Armstrong, P.J. (1987b) ‘Engineers, management and trust’, Work, Employment and Society 1, 4, 1987, pp. 421–40.
Armstrong P.J. (1989) ‘The Engineering Dimension and the Management Education Movement’. Paper presented at One-Day Workshop on Management Cultures and the Engineer, University of Aston.
Atarashi, M. (1986) ‘Contemporary Japanese sociology’, Network, no. 34, January, pp. 3, 4.
Barnett, C. (1972) The Collapse of British Power (London: Eyre Methuen).
Bell, D. (1978) The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (New York: Basic Books/Harper Colophon).
Burgess, T. (1986) Education for Capability (Windsor: NFER-Nelson).
Child, J., M. Fores, I. Glover and P. Lawrence (1986) ‘Professionalism and work organisation: reply to McCormick’, Sociology 20, 4, pp. 49–55.
Cohen, S.S. and J. Zysman (1987) Manufacturing Matters: The Myth of the Post-Industrial Economy (New York: Basic Books).
Filer, D. (1989) ‘Keeping ahead in the engineering race’, Sunday Times, 12 March 1989, p. E22.
Finniston, H.M. (1980) Engineering our Future: Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Engineering Profession Cmnd 7794 (London: HMSO).
Fores, M. (1981) ‘The myth of a British Industrial Revolution’, History, June, pp. 181–98.
Fores, M. (1985) ‘Newton on a horse’, History of Science 23, December, pp. 351–78.
Fores, M. (1988) ‘Transformations and the myth of “Engineering Science”: magic in a white coat’, Technology and Culture 29 (1), January, pp. 62–81.
Fores, M. and I. Glover (1976) ‘The real work of executives’, Management Today, November, pp. 104–8.
Fores, M. and I. Glover (1978) ‘The British Disease: Professionalism’ The Times Higher Education Supplement, 24 February, p. 16.
Fores, M. and J. Pratt (1980) ‘Engineering: our last chance’, Higher Education Review 12, 3, pp. 5–26.
Fores, M. and A. Sorge (1981) ‘The decline of the management ethic’, Journal of General Management 6, 3, pp. 36–50.
Gershuny, J.I. (1978) After Industrial Society? (London: Macmillan).
Gershuny, J.I. and I.D. Miles (1983) The New Service Economy (London: Frances Pinter).
Glover I.A. (1975) ‘Engineers out in the British industrial cold’ The Guardian, 17 October, p. 17.
Glover, I.A. (1978) ‘Executive Career Patterns: Britain, France, Germany and Sweden’, in eds M. Fores and I.A. Glover, Manufacturing and Management (London: HMSO) pp. 157–80.
Glover I.A. (1979) Managerial Work: The Social Scientific Evidence and its Character, PhD thesis (London: City University).
Glover, I.A. (1980) ‘Social science, engineering and society’, Higher Education Review 12, 3, Summer, pp. 27–42.
Glover I.A. (1987) ‘Functionalism, Managerialism and Reification in the Notion of Science and Technology’. Paper presented in March at British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Leeds, and in August at a Conference on the History of Technology, University of Surrey.
Glover, I.A. (1989) ‘Wheels within Wheels: Accounting For and Predicting Fashionable Alternatives to Engineering’. Paper presented to One-day Workshop of Management Cultures and the Engineer, University of Aston, June.
Glover, I.A. and M.P. Kelly (1987) Engineers in Britain: A Sociological Study of the Engineering Dimension (London: Allen & Unwin).
Glover, I.A. and G. Martin (1986) ‘Managerial Work: An Empirical an Cultural Contradiction in Terms?’. Paper presented to the 1986 Conference of the British Sociological Association, Loughborough.
Handy, C, C. Gordon, I. Gow and C. Randlesome (1988) Making Managers (London: Pitman).
Hough, J.R. (1987) Education and the National Economy (Beckenham: Croom Helm).
Hunt, F.J. (1987) The Incorporation of Education (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Hutton, S.P. and P.A. Lawrence (1979) ‘The Work of Production Managers: Case Studies of Manufacturing Companies in West Germany’ Report to the Department of Industry and the Science Research Council, 1979.
Hutton S.P. and P.A. Lawrence (1981) German Engineers: The Anatomy of a Profession (Oxford University Press).
Keenan, A. and P.A. Lawrence (1986) ‘Enhanced Engineering Courses and their Relevance to the Needs of Industry’. Report to the ESRC. (Edinburgh and Loughborough: Heriot-Watt and Loughborough Universities).
Kerr, C, J.T. Dunlop, F.H. Harbison and CA. Meyers (1960) Industrialism and Industrial Man: The Problems of Labour and Management in Economic Growth (Cambridge: Mass.: Harvard University Press).
Kumar, K (1978) Prophecy and Progress: The Sociology of Industrial and Post-Industrial Society (Harmondsworth: Penguin).
Lawrence (1980) Managers and Management in West Germany (London: Croom Helm).
Lawrence, P.A. and S.P. Hutton (1982) ‘The Work of Production Managers: Case Studies of Manufacturing Companies in the United Kingdom’ Southampton: Report to the Department of Industry and Science Research Council.
McCormick, K. (1988) ‘Engineering education in Britain and Japan: some reflections on the use of “the best practice” model in international comparison’ Sociology 22, 4, November, pp. 583–605.
Macfarlane, A. (1978) The Origins of English Individualism: The Family, Property and Social Transition (Oxford: Blackwell).
Marsland, D. (1988) Seeds of Bankruptcy: Sociological Bias Against Business and Freedom (London: Claridge).
Peters, T.J. and R.H. Waterman (1982) In Search of Excellence (New York: Harper & Row).
Prais, S.J. (1981) Productivity and Industrial Structure (Cambridge University Press).
Singer, N. (1988) ‘Things, not ideas?’ Review of H.L. Silver and J. Brennan, A Liberal Vocationalism, Methuen, London, 1987, and P. Nuttgens, What should we teach and how shall we teach it? Aims and purpose of higher education, Wildwood House, 1988, in The Times Higher Education Supplement, 27 May, p. 23.
Sorge, A. (1978) ‘The management tradition: A continental view’. In eds M. Fores and I. Glover, Manufacturing and Management (London: HMSO).
Sorge, A. (1979) ‘Engineers in management: A study of the British, German and French traditions’, Journal of General Management 5, Summer, pp. 45–57.
Sorge, A. and G. Harmann (1980) ‘Technology and Labour Markets’. Discussion Paper 80–39, International Institute of Management, Berlin.
Sorge, A. and M. Warner (1986) Comparative Factory Management: An Anglo-German Comparison of Manufacturing, Management and Manpower (Aldershot: Gower).
The Times Higher Education Supplement, (1988) ‘Management education’ The Times Higher Education Supplement, 10 March, pp. 26–35.
Veblen, T. (1921) The Engineers and the Price System (New York: Viking).
Wilkinson, R. (1964) The Prefects: British Leadership and the Public School Tradition (Oxford University Press).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1993 British Sociological Association
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Glover, I., Kelly, M. (1993). Engineering Better Management. In: Payne, G., Cross, M. (eds) Sociology in Action. Explorations in Sociology. British Sociological Association conference volume series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12108-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12108-3_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-12110-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-12108-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)