Description
Book SynopsisThis text covers British business history from 1720 to the present. It argues that company culture has been the most important component in the evolution of business organizations and management practices. Coverage is chronological and a chapter compares Britain with the US, Germany and Japan.
Table of ContentsPart 1 Business history - an introduction: aims and definitions; the Harvard school; modelling business evolution; business history and economic theory; conclusion. Part 2 The emergence of modern business, 1720-1870: meeting the organisational challenges; operational management - labour recruitment and control; the utilities and professional management; business and long-term finance; liquidity and the financial environment; British business by mid-century. Part 3 Big business abroad up to 1914: American managerial capitalism; the German case - "Co-operative Managerial Capitalism"?; Japanese business and the collective ideal; a typology for large-scale business. Part 4 British industrial capitalism under pressure, 1870-1914: the market-cum-technological environment; attitudes towards combination; a reawakening?; the business culture and its managerial impact; business finance up to 1914; British business by 1914. Part 5 Rationalisation and corporatism, 1914-1945: business abroad and the multidivisional; the "Rationalisation Movement", mergers and the business culture; "Scientific Management" and British workshop practices; the rise of a corporate economy; business by the 1940s. Part 6 Managerial capitalism - evolution and impact, 1945-94: "Finance Capital" and relations with the city; mergers, take-over bids and managerial capitalism; the dynamics of British managerial capitalism; a "Managerial Revolution"?; business into the 1990s.
