Managerial ideology and identity in the nationalised British coal industry, 1947–1994

Abstract

This article examines managerial ideology and identity in the nationalised British coal industry. On nationalisation in 1947, the National Coal Board (NCB) – after 1987 the British Coal Corporation – became the largest socialised industry outside of the Communist bloc. Privatised in 1994, as part of liberal market reforms, the industry was a crucible for ideological clashes amongst managers. The article responds to interest in the impact of managerial ideologies and identities on organisations and in the search for illuminating historical case studies in different organisational settings. The authors position those ideological clashes, and distinctive managerial identities, within a moral economic framework.

Employing historical methods and perspectives in corporate governance

“…They explored the influence of the lecture series and management research groups initiated by Quaker industrialist Seebohm Rowntree in developing a notion of 'business as service' as the discernible roots of corporate social responsibility, distinct from the scientific management and human relations schools within British management from which power, authority and legitimacy stemmed (Maclean et al, 2022). Perchard and Gildart (2022) explore such notions of a service culture amongst managers and how this affected the promotion of management ideas and governance within nationalised corporations and how diverging ideological traditions (informed both by the changing politics of industry and that of society) led to clashes between managers and with government. Such ideas were profoundly shaped by changing context and wider social structures, as well as experiences of wartime service and the operation of elite networking oiled by social and cultural capital.…”