How History Challenges Current Thinking on Hybridity: The Effects of Hybridity on London’s Transport 1933–1948

Abstract

This chapter discusses the cross sectional relationships between national and local government, citizens and hybrid organisations via a historical case study, that of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) during its existence 1933-1948. It finds that the LPTB was a good example of hybridity located in an earlier time period than most research examines, and that the arrangements by which it was governed resulted in some counter intuitive outcomes which challenge the findings from research located in more recent periods concerning the performance of hybrid organisations. However, it supports other research proposing that the role of elites as well as institutional contexts is a key factor in the creation and operation of semi autonomous organisations, and it accepts that objectively measuring the performance in order to make meaningful comparison is not only extremely problematic but may even inhibit performance.