Managing managers: an early twentieth century service industry information system

This article examines the construction and operation of a service industry information system in the early years of the twentieth century. It sets the operations of the Birmingham, UK, company of Mitchells and Butlers in the context of the brewing industry and the operation of public houses. The surviving records are used to construct a picture of a complex and sophisticated information system which not only used accounting records to control managers, but also used the same managers as sources of information about the broader context. The apparent success of this system is set against the reluctance of other brewers to adopt it. This is seen in part to relate to the very complexity of the information system created, but also to the broader perceptions of brewers about the nature and status of their trade

Defining institutions: taking history seriously

This paper suggests an alternative list of institutions to that commonly encountered in the literature on institutional logics. This is done as a response to calls for greater clarity about basic terms. The resources of history are drawn upon to formulate the suggested candidates for the status of institution, with brief outlines for each of some key attributes. It is argued that the proposed specification would enhance the possibilities for comparative analysis

Applying the ideas of Bernstein in the context of in-company management education

Ideas drawn from the sociology of education have had surprisingly little impact on debates on organizational learning. This article takes ideas drawn from the sociology of education and applies them to a subset of organizational learning, the rapidly growing in company management programmes supplied by higher education institutions. It is argued that such programmes are often populated by participants who traditionally might not have engaged in higher education, making the explanatory frameworks of Bourdieu and Bernstein (with their central focus on education and class) relevant. An application of the concepts of Bernstein points to a need to make the notion of `relevance' in education problematic and to reasons why some participants might find the realization of a competent performance difficult

Shaping the public house 1850-1950: business strategies, state regulation and social history

Much cultural and social history fails to engage fully with business history, resulting in an impoverished view of central institutions such as the public house. Using the twin concepts of control and interpretation, and with a particular focus on managed houses, the article suggests that the degree of control exercised by companies over the character of public houses during the period has been exaggerated. While there was an increasing degree of control over public houses in terms of ownership and product range, this control was not necessarily used to influence the character of the house. Many companies left such concerns to their tenants, viewing their pubs as distribution points rather than retail outlets. Changes to the pub, such as the 'improved public house', were as much about the respectability of the trade in response to regulatory pressures as about meeting customer needs. An appreciation of contrasting business strategies can give a richer picture of the public house and its place in popular culture

Where do public house managers come from ? Some survey evidence

There is little evidence about British public house managers, despite an increase in their relative importance. This article outlines some key issues and reports on the results of a survey of managers in one region of a large leisure retail company. The evidence points to a divergence between married couples and single managers. The former are more likely to have come from a manual working class background with relatively low levels of formal education. A trend towards younger, higher qualified managers from a wider range of social backgrounds is discernible. The extent to which companies in the industry use such evidence in their decision making is questioned

Exploring the practice of feedback to students

Feedback to students is a vital but relatively underresearched area. An analysis is presented of practice in a complex modular business programme. Attention is drawn to the difficulty of such analysis, but three ways of looking at the text are presented: by modality, by area of concern and by developmental content. A conversational form of feedback with a focus on ‘implied development’ is identified and placed in the context of Bernstein’s notion of an ‘invisible pedagogy’. Such a focus may disadvantage students and the importance of reflection on feedback in the context of knowledge claims at both the module- and the programme level is stressed

Reflexivity and the institutional entrepreneur: a historical exploration

This article sets the idea of the `institutional entrepreneur' in the context of the `autonomous reflexive' as developed in the work of Margaret Archer. It argues that the latter notion provides a helpful approach to the issue of agency that has bedevilled the new institutionalist project. A detailed account, using the lens supplied by the notion of the autonomous reflexive, is given of the formation of Sir Andrew Barclay Walker, a pioneer of directly managed public houses. The article suggests that Walker used taken-for-granted practice, transferred from elsewhere, to develop his managerial systems. The importance of aspects of Walker's Scottish background, such as education and church governance, is stressed. The account of agency supplied by Archer is seen to be a conception of agency that can inform the debate over the nature of institutional entrepreneurship

Brewing in the North West, 1840–1914: sowing the seeds of service-sector management?

This paper explores the contours of brewing in the north-west of England in the period 1840 to 1914. While accounts of the region have been dominated by considerations of cotton and engineering, it is argued that there was considerable innovation in the brewing industry in the region, notably in the development of the direct management of public houses in Liverpool. However, such success failed to ensure the expansion of companies outside the region and the paper considers the factors which may have led to this. It concludes that the heterogeneity of practice in the region, in particular the tension between Liverpool and Manchester, meant that the baton of innovation was passed to the Birmingham brewers, whose further development of retailing lay at the heart of their eventual importance at national level