The British Worker Question: A New Look at Workers and Productivity in Manufacturing

The British Worker Question (1986) examines the productivity of British workers, drawing upon a wide range of management, trade union and other sources, and spanning the traditional preserves of several other areas and disciplines – economic history, industrial administration, industrial relations and Marxism. It criticises much earlier research for its lack of a grounded sociological analysis of both workers and managements and for its lack of detailed attention to how goods and services are actually produced. The book accords a central place in its analysis of workers and productivity to the role of social organisation and management, matters which both the orthodox and Marxist traditions neglect.