The Past Speaks

I’m sharing the details of the Management and Business History track at this year’s British Academy of Management conference, which concludes today.  Some interesting historical research was presented at BAM this year, including a great little paper by my PhD student Ian Jones.

Management and Business History
Track Chairs: Kevin Tennent and Roy Edwards
TUES 15.30 – 17.00 | MB549, Main Building
WORKSHOP
Session Chair: Roy Edwards and Kevin Tennent
Archives and ‘history as a method’ in Business School Teaching (789) Edwards, Roy;
Tennent, Kevin
This proposal seeks to explore the use of history as a method to understand business decision making in a historical context. The workshop will draw upon the experience of the conveners in delivering undergraduate education in both dissertation supervision and teaching modules on management and business history. In addition how the evidence and approach might be embedded in other more mainstream disciplines will be explored. The value to the wider BAM community will be in thinking about how history as an approach might be used alongside archival evidence to develop an innovative approach to business education.
WED 09.00 – 10.30 | Susan Cadbury Lecture Theatre, Aston Business School
SYMPOSIUM
Session Chair: Kevin Tennent
Frederick W Taylor: Progressive? Or Not? A Debate (187) Wilson, James M; Quail, John
Frederick W. Taylor remains a controversial figure in management. Although the
conventional view is that Taylor and his system of Scientific Management was designed and used to exploit workers, revisionists argue against that received wisdom.
The symposium explores those issues: first considering the prevailing perspective and
understanding of Taylor and his system: what is it and how is it used. That would be
followed by alternative considerations of it as a progressive development, more “liberal” in design and intent than recognized by its contemporary critics or later discussions now seen most often. The format will be presented as a debate: with the first third of the session devoted to initially eliciting the current, popular perception of Taylor, then the second third providing a contrasting view; followed in the last part of the session with an open debate wherein the presenters and audience can interact critiquing the alternative views put forward.

WED 13.30 – 15.00 | MB708A, Main Building
FULL PAPERS
Session Chair: Shane Hamilton

Authentic Organisational Change: The Role Of Rhetorical History In The Creation Of Barclays Bank’s Company Values (917) Jones, Ian Geoffrey

The Narrative of the 1930s City of London and the Manufacturing North of England (896)
Weir, David Thomas

The City of London: Genealogy of a Contemporary Mercantilist Heterotopia (1179)
Cornelius, Nelarine; Pezet, Eric

WED 15.30 – 17.00 | MB404A, Main Building
FULL PAPERS
Session Chair: Roy Edwards
Governing as Minding the Institutional Gap (495) Jimenez, Gonzalo; Pyper, Neil

Enron and the California Energy Crisis: The Emergence of a Corrupt Collective (419) Nix,
Adam; Decker, Stephanie; Wolf, Carola

Building and Sustaining London Transport’s Corporate Strategy in a Time of Uncertainty 1963 – 87 (135) Fowler, James

THURS 09.00 – 10.00 | MB559, Main Building
DEVELOPMENTAL PAPERS
Session Chair: James Fowler

Segmenting public and private: British Municipal Trading c. 1889-1975 (827) Tennent, KevinD; Gilett, Alex G; Fowler, James; Turner, David A

A Cluster’s Response To Dealing With Crisis And Uncertainty: Lessons From History (232)
Lane, Joe

THURS 13.00 – 14.30 | MB504, Main Building
FULL PAPERS
Session Chair: Roy Edwards

Flexibility Is Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose (137) Hamilton, Shane

Mary P. Follett and Chester I. Barnard’s Management Guide to Inclusivity (602) Mawer, Susan

Late Nineteenth Century Strikes and the Origins of the Law-and-Order Leagues in the United States (340) Pearson, Chad Eric

THURS 15.00 – 16.30 | Room 140, Aston Business School
DEVELOPMENTAL PAPERS
Session Chair: Stephanie Decker

The Cartagena Railroad: A failed Hegemonic Experiences and a Laboratory of Social
Movements in the Caribbean (338) Correa, Juan-Santiago

The Historical-Structural Foundations of Peru’s Dependent Development in the Twenty-First Century (302) Silverwood, James; Pyper, Neil

British Contribution to Development of Management Education in Developing Countries:
the Role of Management Group in TETOC in 1960s (979) Masrani, Swapnesh; McKiernan,
Petet