Search

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8616.2008.00523.x Byline: John Bessant (1), Julian Birkinshaw (2), Rick Delbridge (3), Rachel Griffith (4), Jonathan Haskel (5), Andy Neely (6) Abstract: Traditionally, the UK has been regarded as good at innovation - with many inventions and scientific breakthroughs. So, can this nation rest easy? No. Based on extensive research by the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), it would appear that the agenda for keeping Britain competitive is a demanding one. Six AIM authors report on what the UK needs to know. And do. Author Affiliation: (1)Professor of Innovation and Technology Management at Tanaka Business School, Imperial College, London, where he is Research Director. (2)Professor of Strategic and International Management at London Business School. (3)Professor of Organizational Analysis at Cardiff Business School and a Fellow of the Sunningdale Institute. (4)Deputy Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and a Professor in the Economics Department, University College, London. (5)Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, Queen Mary University of London. (6)Deputy Director of AIM. He is also Chairman of the Centre for Business Performance at Cranfield School of Management.

The evidence on new developments in work organizations indicates that the result is frequently one of conflicted collaboration, where the presence of simultaneous interdependence and disconnection lead to coercive and collaborative experience for workers. The analysis and interpretation of these outcomes call for involvement with both social structures of capitalist development and the active role of agency. Understanding hegemony using a critical realist approach provides significant potential in this attempt.

Innovations that change the entire technological scenario with new products are not a routine periodic certainty. Comparative analysis of these discontinuous innovations with other innovations like the Lemon Coke of Coca Cola is furnished and the cost aspects are discussed. A list of methods on building a capacity for discontinuous innovations, which are high risk and high return innovations, is discussed.

This paper examines the manufacturing performance and management practices of 71 automotive components suppliers located in Europe, Japan and North America. The research reports on the extent to which these plants have adopted 'lean production' practices and tests the proposition that such techniques are linked with high manufacturing performance. The results support the contention that tight process control and closely integrated operations are more productive. However, the data do not support the notion that the work organization and human resource policies associated with the lean production model represent a universal 'best way' for achieving high manufacturing performance. Rather, our findings emphasize the importance of context, plant characteristics and choice for understanding the performance of manufacturing organizations. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.), Introduction and Issues This paper examines the hypothesis that lean production practices necessarily lead to high manufacturing performance and contributes to the emergent literature that attempts to establish the empirical [...]

The process discipline and control aspects of lean production management are more important to high performance than people-oriented aspects such as team-working. British automotive components manufacturers perform poorly in comparison with other developed countries such as Japan and Sweden, because they ignore control-oriented practices and concentrate too much on the management of people.

The aim of this study is to understand the nature of managerial work in Japan during an era of widespread corporate reform and changing human resource management (HRM) practices. To achieve this, a qualitative multi-method investigation was designed in which data were collected from company documents, ethnographic observations, and principally in-depth interviews with senior, middle and junior managers. These managers worked for five large Japanese corporations whose operations were based respectively in a range of industrial and commercial sectors. Silhouetted against widespread corporate restructuring and assessing managers' personal rationalizations of key HRM concerns – vis-a-vis job security levels, payment systems, promotion/career systems, trades union activities and work-time expectations – the study found significant age, experience and gender-related differences in the experience of managerial work and working environments. Finally, in conceptual terms, the project adopts an approach in which Weickian sensemaking and business systems theory are deployed to frame evidence that reflects macro (institutional), meso (organizational) and micro (individual) levels of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research considers the process of management control and workers' actions in a Japanese-owned consumer electronics plant sited in England. The data are drawn from a period of participant observation which enabled the author to explore, in detail, the style and extent of management control and worker behaviour, and the nature of workplace relations at the plant. The author found that the incorporation of just-in-time (JIT) and total quality management (TQM) into clearly defined management objectives had allowed a more complete combination of the control of labour with management's economic goals than that apparent under piece rate systems of control. Worker resistance and `misbehaviour' persist, but in ways which are increasingly fragmentary and marginal., This research considers the process of management control and workers' actions in a Japanese-owned consumer electronics plant sited in England. The data are drawn from a period of participant observation which enabled the author to explore, in detail, the style and extent of management control and worker behavior, and the nature of workplace relations at the plant. The author found that the incorporation of just-in-time (JIT) and total quality management (TQM) into clearly defined management objectives had allowed a more complete combination of the control of labor with management's economic goals than that apparent under piece rate systems of control. Worker resistance and 'misbehavior' persist, but in ways which are increasingly fragmentary and marginal. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

A study into the performance and management practices of nine autocomponents plants in the UK and nine in Japan gives results which indicate that there are some advantages to the lean production model, especially in the area of process discipline and control. The study showed that some companies can perform at high levels according to several different performance measures, with the performance differential betwen the Japanese and UK companies averaging 2:1. Lean production is particularly effective in plants where demand is stable and absenteeism is low.

This paper offers an interpretation of the importance of organizational gossip. It draws together theory and research from various disciplines in order to explore four main propositions: that gossip is a phenomenon worthy of serious study/analysis; that gossip in organizations has been under-researched; that analysis of gossip reveals important aspects about the social organization of work; and that gossip is a social process that helps to protect and perpetuate organizations. It concludes that gossip is intrinsic to organizational life. Gossip offers the individual escapism and social mobility and has been undeservedly avoided in organizational analysis. Consequently, as a subject, it demands greater attention in the future in terms of theory and empirical research. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.), Introduction Gossiping is one of the most pervasive activities within organizations yet rarely does it receive serious attention by organization theorists. We read literature replete with examples of gossip (Meyer [...]