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Thesis Rests with Its Author University of Bath PHD Management strategy and labour relations on British Rail Pendleton, Andrew Award date: 1986 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 08. Oct. 2021 MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND LABOUR RELATIONS ON BRITISH RAIL Submitted by Andrew Pendleton for the degree of Ph.D of the University of Bath 1986 COPYRIGHT "Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with its author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published wihout the prior written consent of the author". "This thesis may be made available for consultation within the University Library and may be photocopied or lent Jp other libraries for the purposes of consultation". UMI Number: U005893 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U005893 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 UNIVERSITY Of 3ATH ? LIBRARY 14 SEP 1983 gOi'X'rJ TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary i Acknowledgements ii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1. New Directions in Labour Management 2 2. The Choice of British Rail for Empirical Research. 7 2. MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND CONTROL OF LABOUR 20 1. The Meaning of ’Management Strategy’ 22 2. Management and Control 33 3. GOVERNMENT AND THE RAILWAYS: THE CONTEXT OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGY 43 1. Government Strategy and Nationalized Industries 46 2. Political Interventions and Overlapping Responsibilities 57 3. Political Uncertainty and Labour Relations 66 4. The Thatcher Governments and the Railways 12 4. LABOUR RELATIONS: INSTITUTIONS AND PRACTICES 84 1. The Railway Trade Unions 89 2. The Institutions of Labour Relations 95 3. The Structure and Practice of Workplace Organizations 104 4. The Varying Strength of Workplace Organization 112 5. MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONTROL 120 1. The History of Railway Management 122 2. The Introduction of Sector Management 128 3. Corporate Planning and Budgetary Control 133 4. Management Efficiency and the Organization of Work 138 5. The Introduction of Two Tier Regional Management 144 6. THE MANAGEMENT OF LABOUR RELATIONS 157 1. The Changing Nature of Personnel Management l6l 2. Personnel Management on British Rail 164 3* Labour Relations Policies and Style 179 7. MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND TRAINCREW PRODUCTIVITY 192 1. Train Drivers and the Control of Work 194 2. The Emergence of the Work Re-Organization Strategy 207 3. The Breakdown of the Strategy 215 8. FLEXIBLE ROSTERS AND MANAGEMENT CONTROL 225 1. The Introduction of Flexible Rosters 228 2. Flexible Rosters and Work Re-Organization 236 3. Management Assessments of Flexible Rosters 246 4. Footplate Attitudes to Flexible Rosters 250 9. THE TRANSFORMATION OF RAILWAY SIGNALLING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR RAILWAY SIGNALMEN 259 1. The Development of Railway Signalling 259 2. The Labour Process and Management Objectives 267 10.SIGNALLING STRATEGY AND LABOUR MANAGEMENT 285 1. Strategies and Work Organization 287 2. Labour Relations and the Signalling Strategy 301 3. Management Structure and the Absence ofStrategy 304 4. Sectorisation and Labour Management 309 11.CONCLUSIONS 321 NOTES 342 APPENDICES 389 1. Interview Schedules 389 2. Depots Visited 397 3. Signalling Locations Visited 403 BIBLIOGRAPHY 4ll SUMMARY The hypothesis explored in this thesis is that the management of labour in the 1980s may take a less planned and consistent form than many writers have suggested. Instead, other objectives to which managements attach greater priority will interact with labour management policies and practices, and lead to a variety of managerial approaches to labour issues within the firm. In certain circumstances management control of dimensions of labour management will be diminished. To explore this hypothesis, an extensive empirical investigation was conducted on British Rail since that organization appeared to be taking a strategic approach to re­ structuring it's management of labour. Data was provided by a large number of interviews with managers, employees and union representatives and officials. Government objectives towards nationalized industries of encouraging the reform of labour relations and the adoption of commercial priorities have not led to a more uniform approach to labour by BR since government interventions have occurred in an unpredictable way. A recent re-organization of BR's management structure to respond to these pressures has made the formulation and implementation of consistent labour policies more difficult by intensifying competing pressures within the management hierarchy. Greater variety in management decision-making has failed to achieve flexibility because of the continuing strength of railway workforce organizations. This analysis is extended by a study of patterns of labour management in the train driving and train signalling functions. Examination of work re-organization in the driving function shows that a comprehensive strategy broke down because of governmental interventions and those elements of the strategy that were implemented have failed to increase managerial control of work organization. Investigation of the signalling function shows that labour management policies have generally not been integrated with technical priorities, and that current features of management strategy and structure are re-inforcing this tendency. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It should be a pleasant job to acknowledge the help and encouragement received during the preparation of a doctoral thesis. But so many people have assisted in the making of this one that singling-out those for thanks by name is an invidious task. Virtually everyone I met on British Rail and in the rail unions actively co-operated in the provision of information. Many went beyond this to give enthusiastic encouragement. To them a special thanks. I am grateful also to Roz Chand, Mario Garrett, Diane Jackson, Allister McGregor, Pete Scott, Gill Tipping and Judy Wright, of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Bath, for their forbearance and expressions of solidarity whilst I was writing the thesis. Howard Gospel and Sarah Vickerstaff of the University of Kent contributed much both in giving encouragement and in discussing and criticising my thoughts on management strategies and structures. Eileen Robertson, also of the University of Kent, proof-read the thesis and endeavoured to correct the many mistakes and inconsistencies that had crept in. I am very grateful for her patience and understanding in the final stages of writing. Most of all I must thank Bryn Jones, of the University of Bath, for his encouragement, support, and helpful criticism throughout his supervision of the project. Needless to say the errors that remain are my responsibility alone. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1 In the 1980s the managerial role in labour relations has come to be the favoured topic of study amongst industrial relations researchers. Such a degree of interest in management is unsurprising since product market developments since 1979 have frequently necessitated the formation of new approaches to the management of labour, whilst labour market movements have apparently enabled policies which would hitherto have been obstructed by trade union and workforce organizations to be successfully implemented. It was decided to research the nature of management strategy and labour relations on British Rail because new management policies had been hotly contested, to varying degrees, by the three rail unions. The first section of this chapter briefly surveys the recent literature on management to pinpoint those questions which seemed worthy of further study. The second outlines the reasons for selecting British Rail for empirical investigation and how the research project was designed and implemented. 1. NEW DIRECTIONS IN LABOUR MANAGEMENT Since 1979 there have been major changes in the management of British organizations and the conduct of labour management within them. In many large organizations management
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