Management History Research Group (from the ABH newsletter)

The Management History Research Group (MHRG) held its annual workshop in the peaceful surroundings offered by St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Ably managed by Judy Slinn of Oxford Brookes University, this event sustained the momentum built up over the last seven years, following similar workshops in Milton Keynes, Nottingham, London (Queen Mary, University of London),and Bristol.

To commemorate the enormous contribution that Edward Brech made to management history, the first session of the 2007 workshop was dedicated to his memory. Presentations by Derek Pugh and Peter Starbuck, as well as note sent from New Zealand by Andrew Thomson, skilfully teased out the way in which Edward used his wide experience as a consultant to bring practitioners and academics together in creating the MHRG. We certainly owe a massive debt to this man, a reflection of which is the way that at future workshops there will be an Annual Brech Lecture, as a means of sustaining our memories of a remarkable person. At the end of this session, John Wilson also stimulated some debate about the future direction of the MHRG, given the personnel changes on its governing body and the existence of diary-congestion for most of the academics who regularly contributed to the workshop. Arising from this debate, further electronic discussions have taken place over the summer, reaffirming our belief that the MHRG workshops should continue to be a feature of the conference calendar.
The second session, entitled ‘Before World War 2’, included papers from Trevor Boyns (Cardiff) on Lyndall Urwick, Susanna Fellman (Helsinki) on Finnish management, and Kevin Key (Salfrod) on transport management. This was followed in theafternoon by a session on ‘Management in the leisure industries of the twentieth century’, with papers from Richard Coopey (LSE and Aberystwyth) on the British popular music industry, Jonathan Groucutt (Oxford Brookes) on the GPO film unit, and Mary Quek (Oxford Brookes) on the international hotel industry. These sessions reflected both the diverse and international nature of MHRG papers and presenters, prompting a varied and lively discussion. The first day was completed by John Wilson, who gave an extended presentation on his contribution to an international research project entitled ‘Mapping Corporate Europe’. This was followed by an excellent dinner in St. Anne’s, as well as a tour of some of the nocturnal delights offered by Oxford to facilitate the networking that is at the heart of MHRG events.
The second day started with a genuinely international session on ‘Strategic management’, featuring papers by Kurt Pedersen and Jesper Strandskov (Aarhus) on schools of thought in strategy, Giuliano Maielli and Peter Clark (Queen Mary, London) on national specificities and boundaries of path dependencies, and Eric Cassells (Oxford Brookes) on strategic consulting. After coffee, a session on ‘Management and entrepreneurship quality’ included papers by John Quail (York) on management performance, and Bernardo Batiz-Lazo (Leicester) on Mexican business elites. The consequent debates were highly stimulating, leading to lively discussions over lunch about future collaborations and publications. The final session of the was about ‘Management in the pharmaceutical industry’, with presentations from Tony Corley (Reading) on Beecham, Andrew Godley (Reading) on Merck, and Judy Slinn (Oxford Brookes) on the UK pharmaceutical industry. Once again, the international nature of the papers provided a base for extensive discussions concerning the links between different management systems, providing a theme for the two-day event that we will take on to future workshops.
For those who have never attended any of these workshops, it is important to stress that they combine academic and practitioner work in the broad field of management history, reflecting the desire of the MHRG’s founders to link the two perspectives as much as possible. Given that the MHRG has benefited with funds donated by John Bolton and Adrian Cadbury,it is clear that the practitioner perspective is a vital thread in our discussions. Crucially, the annual MHRG workshop offers a rich social experience that provides the basis for extensive debate and future collaborations. Of course, a lot of reliance is placed on the local organizer, and Judy Slinn certainly upheld the tradition of excellent organization combined with pleasant socialisation.
As we are looking for a suitable venue for 2008, volunteers should contact John Wilson ( John Wilson ) to discuss the details. It is especially important to stress that the MHRG offers £3,000 as a subsidy for each event, making it relatively easy to persuade local management that hosting a workshop will not pose any financial difficulties.