Charles Booth | University of the West of England (original) (raw)

Papers by Charles Booth

Organization Studies, 2010

... Stephen Procter University of Newcastle, UK ... significant authors cited by both Feldman and... more ... Stephen Procter University of Newcastle, UK ... significant authors cited by both Feldman and Feldman (2006) as well as Nissley and Casey (2002) are Halbwachs (various), Huber (1991), Moorman and Miner (1998), Walsh and Ungson (1991) and, significantly, Weick (various). ...

Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2007

Organizations are increasingly being called to account for their history. In particular, German a... more Organizations are increasingly being called to account for their history. In particular, German and non-German companies have been called to account for their relations with the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. Organizations are not only accountable for past activity, but also for previous, often misleading, historical accounts of their behaviour. Thus we are interested in how an organization deals with historical accounts of its past, and how this reflects its culture. Therefore we draw upon concepts from organizational culture studies, and specifically Martin's three perspectives of culture as integration, differentiation, and fragmentation. We take the illustrative case of Bertelsmann, the German publishing company. Revelations of its record under the Nazis, when it published anti-semitic literature, were brought to light by Hersch Fischler in 1998, when Bertelsmann was in the process of taking over Random House. These revelations jarred with the company's image of corporate social responsibility and undermined the company legend, which alleged that it had an impeccable record, and had even been closed down for opposing the Nazis. The Bertelsmann case highlights the dilemmas involved in organizations invoking their past. Debate over the Holocaust has highlighted the dilemmas of truth and relativism in representations *

$Research paper thumbnail of Термен не мрет: A fractional biography of failure.$

Management & Organizational History, 8 (1). pp. 23-42. ISSN 1744-9359 , 2013

Peter Hitchcock has described the subject of this paper as ‘the story of the twentieth century’. ... more Peter Hitchcock has described the subject of this paper as ‘the story of the twentieth century’. Lev Termen (commonly anglicized as Leon Theremin) was a musician, inventor, entrepreneur and espionage agent who developed the Theremin, an early electronic musical instrument that is played without physical contact by the musician, and the first radio-controlled electronic bugging device, among many other electronic instruments and technologies. Despite this inventive fecundity, however, none of his inventions were marketed successfully, at least in a conventional sense. This paper is an unconventional dual biography of Termen and the Theremin, in which I juxtapose a linear, inventor-centred account of the technologies, exemplified by my sources,with a narrative focusing on some of their multiple meanings, uses and developments;and on the multiple, fractional, yet connected identities of their inventor. The paper concludes with a discussion of the substantive and methodological implications of this ‘fractional biography of failure’, drawing on some aspects of the work of Walter Benjamin.

Journal of Unconventional Parks, Tourism & Recreation Research, 4 (1). pp. 2-8. ISSN 1942-6879 , 2012

The paper is a polemical essay concerning approaches to the historical other; a critique of the e... more The paper is a polemical essay concerning approaches to the historical other; a critique of the exceptionalism of the present displayed in some of the contemporary dark tourism literature. We review claims in this literature that dark tourism is both a product of and signifier for post-modernity. We utilise the criteria underpinning these claims to analyse two historical cases of thanatological travel in the first half of the 19th century and conclude that, as both cases self-evidently demonstrate recognisably ‘contemporary’ aspects of dark tourism, conceiving of the latter as ‘post-modern’ is historically inaccurate and misguided. The essay closes with a plea for a historically-informed sensitivity in researching the field.

In: Costanzo, L. A. and MacKay, R. B., eds. (2009) Handbook of Research on Strategy and Foresight. Cheltenham: Elgar, pp. 113-127. ISBN 9781845429638 , 2009

In this chapter we advance suggestions for a philosophical system to underpin strategic foresight... more In this chapter we advance suggestions for a philosophical system to underpin strategic foresight. In an editorial for a forthcoming special issue of the journal Futures, Mermet et al. (2009) argue that, because of the indeterminate and uncertain nature of the object and subject of the futures studies field, futurists have consistently demonstrated a concern for methodology, in part to defend the field against external criticism of its legitimacy and of its practices. The existence of the field as one concerned with practical application (and with the conjoining of efforts of academics and practitioners) has also arguably tended to result in an overemphasis on methodological codification and with it a proliferation of approaches (Bradfield et al., 2005), at a cost of sacrificing theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of sufficient depth. This chapter therefore seeks to address Mermet’s and his colleagues’ call for such underpinnings. The chapter is thus not concerned primarily with the practices and methods of strategic foresight, but with the delineation of a potentially useful, supportive and transformational conceptual approach, drawn from outside the futures studies domain.

Futures, Jan 1, 2009

Scenarios and counterfactuals are two types of modal narrative. Modal narratives concern themselv... more Scenarios and counterfactuals are two types of modal narrative. Modal narratives concern themselves with contingency and determinism: with questions of possibility and necessity. While scenarios are future-oriented, focused on what might yet be, counterfactuals are narratives of what might have been. Despite this fundamental temporal difference, consideration of the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of modal narratives as a genre enables us to elucidate some critical issues concerning scenarios as a foresight methodology. In particular, the scenario literature has tended to avoid extended discussion of its implicit assumptions concerning causation, necessity, possibility and contingency. By confronting the modal nature of foresight methodologies more explicitly, the futures community may begin to lay more secure philosophical foundations for their deployment.

Management & Organizational History, 3 (1). pp. 49-61. ISSN 1744-9359 , 2008

This article reflects on the papers published in the M&OH Symposium on ‘Counterfactual History in... more This article reflects on the papers published in the M&OH Symposium on ‘Counterfactual History in Management and Organizations’. After describing the background to the symposium we review some important themes in the multidisciplinary domain of counterfactuals. We discuss each of the papers published in the symposium and set out our views on future directions for counterfactual history in the management and organization studies discipline.

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2007

The successful management of strategic change requires an understanding of which moves are possib... more The successful management of strategic change requires an understanding of which moves are possible in specific contexts, and thus of how specific contexts variously require, forbid, or permit certain organizational or policy actions. Appreciation of such modal issues of necessity and possibility thus becomes essential in understanding organizational and technological dynamics. This paper introduces the concept of modal narratives: forms of analytically structured narrative that explore questions of necessity, possibility and contingency. After a brief review of two common types of modal narrative—counterfactuals and scenarios— the potential of a third form is suggested: the superfactual. An extended example of a superfactual is provided in the Project Hindsight case, and the implications for strategic action are discussed.

Management & Organizational History, Jan 1, 2006

We outline the prospects for Management & Organizational History in the form of a 10-point agenda... more We outline the prospects for Management & Organizational History in the form of a 10-point agenda identifying issues that we envisage being addressed in the journal. 1. The ‘Historic Turn’ in Organization Theory - calls for a more historical orientation in management and organization theory. 2. Historical Methods and Styles of Writing - alternative methods and diverse styles of writing appropriate for studying organizations historically. 3. The Philosophy of History and Historical Theorists - the relevance for management and organization theory of philosophers of history such as Michel Foucault and Hayden White. 4. Corporate Culture and Social Memory - the historical dimension of culture and memory in organizations. 5. Organizational History - the emergence of a distinctive field of research. 6. Business History and Theory - the engagement between business history and organization theory. 7. Business Ethics in History - the meaning and ethics of past business behaviour. 8. Metanarratives of Corporate Capitalism - historiographical debate concerning the rise of capitalism and the modern corporation. 9. Management History and Management Education - the link between the history of management thought and the teaching of management and organization theory. 10. Public History - the relation between business schools and the increasing public interest in history.

Management Decision, Jan 1, 2003

Does history matter in strategy? The lack of attention given to historical perspectives in the ma... more Does history matter in strategy? The lack of attention given to historical perspectives in the mainstream literature suggests that it does not. Recently, however, authors have argued that historical forces do affect the strategic management of organizations, and have highlighted their importance through the concept of “path dependence”. I review the literature on path dependence and argue that a conception of the complexities of historical understanding is required in a dynamic understanding of organizations. To highlight these complexities, I review an important theme in twentieth century historiography: the possibilities and problems presented by counterfactual analysis. Despite some serious objections to counterfactual thinking, this method may yield benefits for both managers and theorists. I conclude that to do justice to the importance of history in organizations, we must follow Collingwood in engaging, not with the question “Shall I be a historian or not?”, but rather with the question, “How good a historian shall I be?”.

The International Journal of Management Education, Vol. 3, No. 3, 19-31., 2003

Research projects form an integral part of programmes offered by most UK undergraduate business p... more Research projects form an integral part of programmes offered by most UK undergraduate business providers. In addition, many institutions provide formal research methods courses intended to support these research projects. However, there is little literature available on undergraduate business research. In this paper, we survey the literature on research methods teaching in other disciplines and construct a framework of different possible approaches. We gathered data from six UK business schools about their research methods provision and their approaches to undergraduate research projects. We found that undergraduate research was supported in a number of ways, and that provision was profoundly divergent and affected by local contextual issues. We recommend that institutions need to tackle some serious difficulties and divergences in their approach to undergraduate business research, and that good practice involves the creation of a research spine through the undergraduate programme, tying together academic literacy, quantitative skills, research methods and the dissertation. We acknowledge that this may involve a considerable shift of resources in some institutions.

Teaching in Higher Education, 7, 4, 429-441, 2002

The case method is a definitive and foundational technology in business education. It was first d... more The case method is a definitive and foundational technology in business education. It was first developed as a vocational training tool equipping students for future employment. In this conception, the organisation was seen as a machine, and managers as the engineers who would maintain it through planned interventions. The case method allowed aspiring managers to practise intervention skills in a safe environment. Since the origins of the case method in US business schools before the First World War, conceptions of organisations have moved on. They are no longer seen as machine-like, but as complex, ambiguous, and protean. The 'wicked' problems that potential managers will face in an uncertain world require the development of critical thinking and sensemaking abilities. While the traditional approach to the case continues, its use as a vehicle to explore and manage complexity and ambiguity is emerging, although this is facing resistance from some students and staff.

Learning Organization, The, Jan 1, 2000

The paper is concerned with alliances and learning. It provides an overview of recent contributio... more The paper is concerned with alliances and learning. It provides an overview of recent contributions to the emergent literatures on knowledge management and organizational learning, identifies similarities and differences between the two, and highlights the implications of these for academics and practitioners. The paper explores the significance of networks, alliances and inter-organizational relationships for organizations and considers the nature and importance of learning in and through such relationships. A modified version of Coghlan's (1997) model of organizational learning as a dynamic interlevel process is then presented to reflect these developments.

The International …, Jan 1, 2000

The case method in business and management education is generally considered to have been develop... more The case method in business and management education is generally considered to have been developed as an executive education technology in the United States in the early years of the twentieth century. Much of the literature on the method reflects these origins and is culturally or institutionally specific. However, cases are used today in a wide variety of contexts, including undergraduate business education. In this paper we discuss key themes in the current context of higher education, explore the use of cases in large and diverse undergraduate business education programmes, and examine how the changing institutional context of these programmes has affected the use of the business case as a pedagogical technology.

Conference Presentations by Charles Booth

In August 1914 Robert Edwin Bush, a Bristol-born wool-baron and former member of the Western Aust... more In August 1914 Robert Edwin Bush, a Bristol-born wool-baron and former member of the Western Australian Assembly, started to convert his house in Stoke Bishop for use as a 100-bed war hospital. Under Bush’s direction, Bishop’s Knoll War Hospital initially treated wounded of a number of allied nations, but the last British casualties were discharged in 1916, and the hospital thereafter reserved for Australian wounded. He continued his activities as Bristol’s unofficial Australian ambassador after the war, regularly meeting groups of ex-patients, corresponding with families of Australian servicemen buried in Bristol, organising the annual ANZAC Day services, hosting touring Australian cricket teams, and so on. Exploring the case study of Robert Bush, his hospital, and the soldiers who were treated there (some of whom were Bristolians who had emigrated to Australia before the war) allows a multi-stranded analysis of themes of nostalgia, identity, exile and return in relations between Bristol and Australia before, during and after the First World War.

In 2005, Airstream, Inc., a US manufacturer of travel trailers (caravans) and motorhomes, celebra... more In 2005, Airstream, Inc., a US manufacturer of travel trailers (caravans) and motorhomes, celebrated the 75th anniversary of its incorporation. Founded by Wallace M. (Wally) Byam (1896-1962), the company is one of only two surviving US trailer manufacturers from the 1930s. Its products are broadly held to be classics of American design, and early models are now premium-priced collectors’ items. Byam himself is hailed as a expert designer, engineer and marketer who played a crucial role in the evolution and development of technologies associated with the adaptation of motor vehicles for long-distance travel and tourism, camping and outdoor pursuits.

From 1951 to 1960 Byam planned and led a number of ‘caravans’ – groups of travellers living and travelling in Airstreams – to Central America, Europe, Africa and within the North American continent. In 1955, a group of 55 Airstream caravanners formally incorporated the Wally Byam Caravan Club (from 1962 the Wally Byam Caravan Club International – WBCCI). The WBCCI now has over 10,000 members and organizes hundreds of rallies yearly. The club celebrated its 50th anniversary at a rally in Springfield, Missouri, in June/July 2005.

The aims of the paper are three-fold and the structure will reflect this. In the first section of the paper, I explore the social, cultural and technological developments in the evolution of the travel trailer prior to the incorporation of Airstream just before the Second World War. National tourism in the US developed between 1880 and 1940, with the emergence of print media, national transportation systems and technologies, mass markets and marketing, and increased disposable income and leisure time. Tourism marketing strategies (“See America First!”) publicised messages of patriotism, loyalty and heritage within the promotion of tourist landscapes and the consumption of tourist experiences.

Within the specialised area of auto-camping, in particular, the intersection of the technological and the pastoral (“The Machine in the Garden”) promoted a communal reproduction of US identity which looked back to the values of the frontier while being securely fixed in modernity. However, during this time there was also significant uncertainty and interpretative flexibility about the travel trailer, its uses, purposes and markets, and this uncertainty was managed, in part, by manufacturers, suppliers, users and other stakeholders attempting to create camper communities (a theme built on and extended by Byam and the WBCCI caravans). Certain tensions - between poverty and extravagance, togetherness and independence, protection and despoliation of the environment, the indoors and the outdoors, and between ‘travel’ and ‘tourism’ – early became apparent, and continued into the second half of the twentieth century.

In the paper, I briefly discuss the history of the Airstream company under Byam, and outline certain themes in his business and technological leadership. I argue that in Byam’s conception (and in his marketing) the Airstream iconically combined values of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and the technical excellence of the American engineer with a secular evangelism concerning travel, adventure and wilderness; and with a commitment to camping as a communal activity. I argue that this conception actively sought to blend appeals to modernist values of engineering and design excellence with the emblematic historical values of the pioneer communities of the early west. This appeal, consciously or unconsciously, was concealed and conveyed within a folk mythology of the common man (or woman) re-discovering their sense of place in a supportive community of fellow adventurers.

In the final part of the paper, I focus specifically on the 1950s and early 1960s caravans, and assess whether Byam and the WBCCI can unambiguously be classified as ‘cold warriors’. Based on a detailed analysis of Byam’s own writings and other contemporary accounts, I suggest that such an unambiguous attribution is problematic. Twin ideological and policy discourses existed in the Cold War: of containment and of integration. Containment was a discourse of otherness: creating social and cultural practices which, for example, rendered difference and deviance a source of anxiety and an object of investigation; “a force of restriction, intimidation and suppression” (Klein, 2003). Containment was “one of the most powerfully deployed national narratives in recorded history” (Nadel, 1995). Integration, however, “constructed a world in which differences could be bridged and transcended” (Klein, 2003), defining the US within relationships rather than oppositions. Integration was a sentimental discourse of self-in-relation, the transcendence of difference and particularism, grounded in reciprocity and exchange, particularly emotional and sympathetic (Klein, 2003).

I conclude that the WBCCI was a paradigm example of the integrationist impulse: placing an emphatic reliance on both internal community and identity, and external connection and reciprocity. It also represented an act of cultural diplomacy which self-evidently demonstrated US technological superiority within a sentimental narrative of global citizenship, and simultaneously contradicted the isolationist mode of earlier national tourism practices while exemplifying their essential reference to a technologised pastorality to be explored as part of a communal pioneer heritage. In this respect the caravans were about putting Airstream, Byam and the WBCCI on display to the world, as a form of cultural diplomacy, as much as they were about self-discovery through travel and adventure.

The Gilbreths on Film Ann Rippin Department of Management University of Bristol Charles B... more The Gilbreths on Film

Ann Rippin
Department of Management
University of Bristol

Charles Booth
Bristol Business School
University of the West of England

Frank Bunker Gilbreth (1868-1924) and Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972) were consultants who played a prominent part in the scientific management movement and in the foundation of the Taylor Society. They made significant contributions to developing concepts in motion and fatigue study (and thus to ergonomics), and in Lilian’s case, to the psychology of management. After Frank Gilbreth’s death, Lilian Gilbreth extended their work to the application of scientific management principles to home-making, developing aids, principles and practices to assist disabled workers and war veterans, and further investigation into the relationship of work, leisure and fatigue. Unlike some other figures associated with early management thought, the Gilbreths retain a prominent place in histories of the development of management, and a description of their lives and contributions remains a staple of canonical treatments of management history and in management textbooks. There is an extensive secondary literature on their contributions, as well as standard biographies, Lilian’s biography of her husband, and her own autobiography. In addition, the Gilbreth household was the subject of two humorous popular books by two of their children, Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on their Toes; the Hollywood adaptations of which are, in part, the subject of this paper.

Wren (2005) provides an account of Frank Gilbreth’s quarrel with Taylor in the field of time and motion studies. Whereas Taylor favoured temporal recordings of worker activities, through the use of the stopwatch, Gilbreth developed photographic studies of motion at work, building on earlier technological developments by Marey and Muybridge (Corbett, 2008). Although we now refer to ‘time and motion’ studies as indivisible, this was by no means understood to be the case by Taylor and Gilbreth, a fact that, among other issues, led to a serious rift. In particular, Gilbreth championed the use of ‘micro-motion studies’ including the use of the ‘chronocyclegraph’, whereby flashing lights were attached to the hands, fingers and arms of workers who were then repeatedly photographed to analyse physical movement. The use of film, and in particular, novel motion picture technologies, was thus placed by Gilbreth at the centre of his consultancy work on worker motion and fatigue.

The two Hollywood films made about the Gilbreths were Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) and the sequel, Belles On Their Toes (1952), both of which were based on accounts written by two of the children, Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The first film shows the Gilbreths raising their children and ends with the death of Frank Gilbreth. The second follows Lilian Gilbreth’s attempts to continue their work despite the sexism (described as ‘stupid male conceit’) she encounters. Both films are nostalgic for a simpler and better time in America’s past, and celebrate the large family which was becoming a rarity in the post-war years. The Gilbreths’ work as efficiency engineers forms the backdrop to ‘heartwarming’ scenes of family life. The screenwriter in the first, Lamar Trotti, is at pains to emphasise that scientific management is not intimidating. The narrator, the oldest daughter Ann, states: ‘Dad was an industrial engineer and a leader in the field of scientific management. If that sounds complicated, just say he was an efficiency expert, a man who’d shown industry how to save time.’ Scientific Management as embodied in Frank Gilbreth is shown as eccentric and bizarre. Ann describes her father as ‘rugged, individualistic’ and he is shown as bluff but also as a kind and loveable paterfamilias. In the second film, Scientific Management is embodied by Lilian Gilbreth, played by Myrna Loy. By this stage it is seen as much more human. Whereas Frank Gilbreth had timed his children lining up to say ‘hello’ when he returns to work (a device reworked in The Sound of Music to show von Trapp’s emotional alienation from his children), and insisted on viewing their tonsillectomies as a research opportunity, for Lilian Gilbreth, humanity is important. In the only example of the principles of Scientific Management explicitly mentioned in either film she states: ‘We must remember of all the factors involved in industrial management the most important is the human being’ before giving her trainees time off before Thanksgiving.

Film is used twice in the pictures. In Cheaper by the Dozen, the Frank Gilbreth agrees to his children have tonsillectomies as long as he can film the operations in order to show surgeons where they are going wrong and how the process could be speeded up and made more efficient. When Lilian asks him, ‘Doesn’t it seem rather heartless using the children as guinea pigs?’ he replies, ‘Not at all, they’ll be asleep and won’t know what’s going on.’ Fate intervenes, however, as the cameraman forgets to load the film. In Belles On Their Toes film is used as an early example of marketing or public relations. Lilian’s (male) champion, Mr Harper, who has moved from his initial position of stating, ‘No man worth anything would ever take instruction from a woman’ to opening a training school with her, decides to help her boost business by making a promotional film to be shown in cinemas after the newsreel. The resulting film parodies efficiency by showing the huge family eating dinner first speeded up and then in reverse. The family are appalled, but America loves it, and Mrs Gilbreth’s career flourishes.

The aims of the paper are both substantive and methodological. Similar to Booth’s (2007) treatment of the Theremin, we examine in ironic juxtaposition two very separate issues – united by the theme of ‘film’ - concerning the Gilbreths’ life and work. The first is the use of motion picture photography, particularly the use of the ‘chronocyclegraph’, to examine, analyse and improve workers’ use of bodily movements in carrying out work tasks, thereby reducing fatigue. The second is the Hollywood treatment of the Gilbreth’s application of scientific management principles to the management of their home. Although neither aspect can be said to have been completely ignored in the literature, little sustained attention has been paid to them; and the paper therefore provides a substantive analysis of these two phenomena. Methodologically, the paper’s contribution can be said to represent an attempt to disrupt the linearity of management biography/history, by explicitly drawing attention to the fractionality ignored - or at best, managed - by historical accounts but which, we argue, is necessarily present in lived experience and thus, in historical events and processes.