U n m a s k i n g ideology is not p a r t i c u l a r l y difficult in resp e c t of those specific ideologies w h i c h j u s t i f y the m a t e r i a l or political interests of a social group (such as the personnel management p r o f e s s i o n ) , or of a w h o l e class, w h e r e ' i n t e r e s t s 1 are opaque. Such i d e o l o g i e s are r e l a t i v e l y easy to r e cognise and w h e r e n e c e s s a r y to discount. The real p r o b l e m lies w i t h the less evid e n t 'general' ideologies in w h i c h are embedded and t h e r e b y concealed, the w o r k i n g out of social relations. 'General' ideologies w o r k through sets of implicit values,
'not b y openly justifying prevailing institutions but by arresting social thought at inadequate and
superficial concepts.' ^
This is an invitation, therefore, to consider social science ideas, not for whether they are 'true1 or not, but for the way in which they participate in a general
57
set of ideas ("general social eidos" as Madge phrases it) which exist outside the confines of the discipline. 58 While social science may have been "anti-ideological"
in its specific impact on British management thought, it may be seen to be ideological in its general
character. In the language of the structuralists consultants' theories and practices may symbolize the deep structures of economic and social relations.
Precisely what these 'deep structures' are and in what way consultants' theories and practices symbolize them
is the subject ox the concluding chapters.
At the risk, therefore, of smuggling back in functionalist explanations, the eventual aim is to shift focus away
from the 'particular' ideology of an occupational group (which Mannheim considered the more productive area of
I
study) to outline the characteristics of a 'general'
ideology in organisational life, in the period under study, by suggesting that the ideas of the particular occupational group (social and behavioural science consultants) connect with a general set of ideas broadly underlying and
permeating societal and organisational life. 48
R e f e r e n c e s a n d N o t e s to C H A P T E R 1
1. E.Rogers, Diffusion of Innovation, Free Press, 1 9 6 1. 2. Between 1 9 6 1 and 1976, for example, the 'Professional
and scientific services' sector increased as a percentage of total UK employment from 9. 6% to 15-7% (Department of Employment Gazette). It is difficult to put a figure on the number of consultants active, but some indication of the growth in their numbers is given from Tisdall’s
estimate that in 1 9 5 6, "there were over 1 0 0 0 experienced consultants at work, about two-thirds of whom were
either engineers or accountants", and that this had become 5000 by 1 9 8 3* (P.Tisdall, Agents of Change: The Development and Practice of Management Consultancy,
London, Heinemann, 1982, p .A1, p .9 At the same t i m e , membership of the Organisation Development Network alone grew from its foundation in 1 9 7 1? to over 3 0 0 members in
1979. (source: OND Directory,1979)
3- For example, J.Burnham, The Managerial Revolution, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 19^5; J.Child, Brit ish
Management Thought, London, George Allen and Unwin,l969-
k.
For example, A. Hastings and C.R.Hinings, R o l e R e l a t i o n s and Value Adaptation: A study of the P r o f e s s i o n a lAc co tint ant in Industry, Sociology, Septe m b e r 1970» PP 353-366
5- For example, T.J.Watson, The Personnel Managers: A Study in the sociology of work and employment, London,
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977-
6. J.Child, op.cit, p. 16
7. Ibid, p. 23
8. Ibid
9. T.J.Watson, op.cit.
10. Ibid, p .1 6. At the same time W a t s o n notes, "The c o n cept (of ideology) is being used here in a m a n n e r w h i c h is m u c h w i d e r than is gener a l l y the case in s o c i o l o g y (and in r e c o g n i t i o n of this I w ill r e tain the w o r d i n g 'group ideology'). With i n this theoretical scheme no stat e m e n t is inherently ideological - it becomes i d e o logical
through the use to w hich is b e i n g put." (ibid,p.l6)
1 1. J.Child, pp.cit. p.229 12.Ibid, p .239
13- Ibid. p . 22
l k . Alan Fox was making a similar point when he argued that a unitary ideology of the work organisation might
prevent a manager from taking a realistic view of opposition, conflict, and differences of interest.
(A.Fox, Industrial Sociology and Industrial Relations, Research Paper 3i Royal Commission on Trade Unions
and Employers' Associations, London, HMSO,l966) 15. J. Child, op.cit. p.238
16. See ibid, C h . 3*
17. See, for example, G.Thomason, A Textbook of Personnel Management, Institute of Personnel Management, 3 r d ed.
1976 ? Introduction.
18 . IPM, Statement on personnel management and personnel policies, Personnel Management, March 1963*
19. See, for example, T.J.Watson, op.cit., p .1 9 8.
20. D.Gowler and K.Legge, Evaluative Practices as Stressors in Occupational Settings in C.L.Cooper and R.Payne (eds) Current Concerns in Occupational Stress, John Wiley,
1 9 8 0, p.2 3 0.
21. R.Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure, Glencoe, 111. Free Press, 1957^ 1976, p .6 9•
22. D.Gowler and K.Legge, op.cit., p.230.
23. C.L.Wilkinson, Redundancy: A Personnel Manager's Dilemma? , Unpublished B.A.thesis, Trent Polytechnic, Dept, of Business Studies, C.N.A.A., 1 9 8 1.
2 k . D.Gowler and K.Legge, op.cit., p. 230 25. T.J.Watson, op.cit., p.^l
26. See ibid, p.l64
27- Similarly, Child (op.cit.) seeks to show that
management thinkers were offering managers (and the general public) an ideology that softened the
language of conflict and reduced the evident polarisation of capital and labour which was particularly marked in the 1 9 2 0's.
28. Or to put it another way, the methodology is insufficiently 'phenomenological'.
29* See, for example, D.McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise, New York, McGraw-Hill, i9 6 0 ; W . B e n n i s , Changing Organisations, New York, M c G r a w - H i l l ,1966; G.Lippitt, Organisational R e n e w a l , New York, Appleton- Century-Crofts, 1969• R .L i k e r t , New Patterns of
Management, New York, McGraw-Hill^ 1961; C .A r g y r i s ,
Interpersonal competence and organisational effectiveness, I r w i n , 1962.
30. W.Bennis, Theory and method in applying behavioural science for planned organisational change, Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, 1 , October, 1 965 ,pp337-360. 31* A.K.Dekom, The Internal Consultant, American Management
Association, Research Study 101, l969,p-34. 32. Ibid, p . 16.
33. R.E.Kelley, Should you have an internal consultant?, Harvard Business Review, Nov.-Dec.1979,p . 110-120.
3^. A. Hunt, The Management Consultant, New York, The Ronald Press Co., 1977-
35- For a criticism of this viewpoint see T.Benton, ’Objective* Interests and the Sociology of Power,
Vol.15,N02, May l9Bl, pp l6 l-l8¥.
3 6 . See S.Wood, A Reappraisal of the Contingency Approach to Organisation, Journal of Management S t u d i e s ,V o l .131 N o . 2, 1979, PP 334-354.
37- T.Benton, op.cit., p.179- 3 8 . Ibid, p . 180.
39. See I.J.Watson, op.cit., p . 199
40• S.Wood, Industrial Sociology in Practice, paper
presented to British Sociological Association Annual Conference, I980,p.4.
4l.. Ibid,p.4. . . .
42. Use of the term, ’elective affinity’, is scattered through various of W e b e r ’s works, for example in Wirtschaft and Gesellschaft, Tubingen, M o h r , 1978, pp 201,780,795,796,8 15• For a discussion of its meaning, which is neither consistent nor clear in Weber's works, see J.J.R.Thomas, Ideology and
Elective A f finity, Sociology,Voll9,No.1 , February 1985* P P - 39-5^-
43- K.Marx and F.Engels, The German I d eology, London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1965, pp -39- 40 .
44. J.Child, op.cit., p . 169. 45. Ibid, p p .221 f f .
46. See T.Burns, Sociology as a Discipline: A Retrospective View, paper presented to the British Sociological
Association Annual Conference, 1980, for an account of the channelling of Marshall Aid Funds in post-war
Britain to support social science research. Also R . G .Stansfield, Operational Research and S o c i ology,
1 9 8 0, paper presented at the same conference, on the Schuster Panel the D.S.I.R. and M.R.C., and events leading up to the formation of the Social Science Research Council, directing funding to stimulate
•useful’ research.
47- J.Child, op.cit., p . 206.
48. See, for example, J.Storey, The Challenge to Management C o n t r o l , Kogan Page, 1980.
49- J.Child, op.cit., p.206.
50. L.Klein, A Social Scientist in Industry, London, Gower Press, 1976, especially Ch.8 .
51- T. Lupton, nBest Fit” in the design of O rganisations, Personnel Review , V o l .4,No1 ,1975,P P •15-31•
52. See, for example, C.Fletcher, Beneath the Surface: An Account of Three Styles of Sociological R e s e a r c h , Routledge and Kegan P a u l , 1978.
53- L. Spencer and-A. Dale, Integration and Regulation in Organisations: A Contextual App r o a c h , Sociological Review, V o l .27,No.4, 19791 p p . 679-701.
54. R. Blackburn (ed), Ideology in Social S c i e n c e , Fontana, 1972, p . 9-
55- A.W.Gouldner, The Coming Crisis of Western S o c i o l o g y , London, Heineman, 1971, P-29-
5 6 . R. Blackburn, op.cit., p . 10.
57. C.Madge, Society in the Mind: Elements of Social E i d o s , Faber and Faber, 1964*
\
5 8 . J.Child, op.cit., p . 205,233-
CHAPTER 2