This paper explores two distinct frames of meaning used by managers in an industrial enterprise. One is taken to be derived from the traditions of the industry and is consequently particular to it. The other is taken to be derived from conceptions of the professional management of organizations and is universalistic. In looking for explanation, the background to each frame is elucidated, in terms of Giddens' `structuration', and attempts are made to relate them to the divorce of ownership and control and the associated development of capitalism. A change of control in the enterprise, resulting from the latter, is used to highlight the frames of meaning and suggestions are made as to the possible connections between the emergence of finance capital as the power in capitalism and that of a financially-dominated form of management in the organization.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aaronovitch, S. (1955). Monopoly: a Study of British Monopoly Capitalism. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
2.
Aaronovitch, S. (1961). The Ruling Class: a Study of the British Finance Capitalism. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
3.
Baran, P. A. and Sweezy, P. M. (1966). Monopoly Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.
4.
Batstone, E. (1975). `Deference and the Ethos of Small-Town Capitalism' in Bulmer, M. (ed.) Working-Class Images of Society. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
5.
Bell, C. and Newby, H. (1973). `The Sources of Variation in Agricultural Workers' Images of Society'. Sociological Review21:229-253.
6.
Bendix, R. (1956). Work and Authority in Industry: Ideologies in Management in the Course of Industrialisation. New York: Wiley.
7.
Berle, A. A. and Means, G. C. (1932). The Modern Corporation and Private Property. New York: Macmillan.
8.
Blackburn, R. (1965). `The New Capitalism' in Anderson, P. and Blackburn, R. (eds.) Towards Socialism. London: Fontana.
9.
Braverman, H. (1974). Labor and Monopoly Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.
10.
Burnham, J. (1945). The Managerial Revolution. Harmondsworth, Penguin.
11.
Burns, T. (1961). `Micropolitics: Mechanisms of Institutional Change'. Administrative Science Quarterly6:257-281.
12.
Burns, T. (1966). `On the Plurality of Social Systems' in Lawrence, J. R. (ed.) Operational Research and the Social Sciences. Oxford: Pergamon.
13.
Child, J. (1969a). British Management Thought. London: Allen & Unwin.
14.
Child, J. (1969b). The Business Enterprise in Modern Industrial Society. London: Collier-Macmillan.
15.
Clegg, S. and Dunkerley, D. (1980). Organisation, Class and Control. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
16.
Dalton, M. (1959). Men Who Manage. New York: Wiley.
17.
Dawe, A. (1970). `The Two Sociologies'. British Sociological Review21:207-218.
18.
Drucker, P. (1955). The Practice of Management. London: Heinemann.
19.
Drucker, P. (1969). The Age of Discontinuity. London: Heinemann.
20.
Drucker, P. (1977). People and Performance. London: Heinemann.
21.
Edwards, R. (1979). Contested Terrain. New York: Basic Books.
22.
Francis, A. (1980). `Families, Firms and Finance Capital'. Sociology14:1-27.
23.
Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C. W. (1963). `A Marx for Managers' in Mills, C. W. Power, Politics and People. New York: Oxford University Press.
24.
Giddens, A. (1976). New Rules of Sociological Method. London: Hutchinson.
25.
Giddens, A. (1977). Studies in Social and Political Theory. London: Hutchinson.
26.
Giddens, A. (1979). Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. London: Macmillan.
27.
Giddens, A. (1982). Profiles and Critiques in Social Theory. London: Macmillan.
28.
Glaser, B. G. and Strauss, A. L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. New York: Aldine Press.
29.
Gouldner, A. W. (1957). `Cosmopolitans and Locals'. Administrative Science Quarterly2:281-306 & 444-480.
30.
Heaton, H. (1965). The Yorkshire Woollen and Worsted Industries from the Earliest Times up to the Industrial Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon.
31.
Hickson, D. J., Hinings, C. R., Lee, C. A., Shneck, R. E. and Pennings, J. M. (1971). `A Strategic Contingencies Theory of Inter-Organisational Power'. Administrative Sciences Quarterly16:216-229.
32.
Hilferding, R. (1981). Finance Capital. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
33.
Johnson, T. J. (1972). Professions and Power. London: Macmillan.
34.
Kerr, C., Dunlop, J. T., Harbison, F. and Myers, C. A. (1973). Industrialism and Industrial Man. Harmondsworth, Penguin.
35.
Kuhn, T. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press.
36.
Lockwood, D. (1966). `Sources of Variation in Working-Class Images of Society'. Sociological Review14:249-267.
37.
March, J. G. and Simon, H. A. (1958). Organisations. New York: Wiley.
38.
Martin, R. and Fryer, R. H. (1973). Redundancy and Paternalist Capitalism. London: Allen & Unwin.
39.
Martin, R. and Fryer, R. H. (1975). `The Deferential Worker' in Bulmer, M. (ed.) Working Class Images of Society. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
40.
Miller, E. J. and Rice, A. K. (1967). Systems of Organisations. London: Tavistock.
41.
Millerson, G. L. (1964). The Qualifying Associations. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
42.
Nichols, T. (1969). Ownership, Control and Ideology: an Enquiry into Certain Aspects of Business Ideology. London: Allen & Unwin.
43.
Norris, G. M. (1978). `Industrial Paternalist Capitalism and Local Labour Markets'. Sociology12:469-489.
44.
Nyman, S. and Silberston, A. (1978). `The Ownership and Control of Industry'. Oxford Economic Papers30:74-103.
45.
Offe, C. (1970). Industry and Inequality. London: Arnold.
46.
Pettigrew, A. M. (1973). The Politics of Organisational Decision-Making. London: Tavistock.
47.
Pollard, S. (1965). The Genesis of Modern Management. London: Arnold.
48.
Ponting, K. G. (1966). Wool Marketing. Oxford: Pergamon.
49.
Ponting, K. G. (1971). The Woollen-Industry of South-West England. Bath, Adams & Dart.
50.
Poulantzas, N. (1974). Classes in Contemporary Society. London: New Left Books.
51.
Ryder, J. and Silver, H. (1970). Modern English Society. London: Methuen.
52.
Scott, J. (1979). Corporations, Classes and Capitalism. London: Hutchinson.
53.
Scott, J. and Hughes, M. (1976). `Ownership and Control in a Satellite Economy'. Sociology10:21-41.
54.
Silverman, D. (1970). The Theory of Organisations. London: Heinemann.
55.
Zeitlin, M. (1974). `Corporate Ownership and Control: the Large Corporations and the Capitalist Class'. American Journal of Sociology79:1073-1119.
