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The Management and Organisation of GKN

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A History of GKN

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Abstract

Thus far, this history has been concerned in the main with companies, products or manufacturing processes and has attempted to show the reasons why particular businesses succeeded or failed. Reference has been made to those individuals who exercised a crucial influence over specific strategies (H. Seymour Berry and Sir David Llewellyn, for example, in the acquisition of collieries in South Wales) or who shaped the fortunes of one enterprise (H.R. Lysaght’s chairmanship of John Lysaght (Australia) Pty.). However, it is important to recognise that the course GKN took during the interwar period, whether for good or ill, was not solely determined by market forces (the price of steel, exchange rates), government decisions (the level of import duties, the return to the Gold Standard) or the application of technical innovations to steelworks and factories (the reconstruction, for instance, of East Moors in 1934–36 at a cost of almost £3 million). The calibre of the directors and senior managers responsible for devising the group’s policy and its implementation must, to a degree, have been reflected in GKN’s record of profits and performance. In times of slump they sought to mitigate the effects of reduced demand, low prices and short-time working, while during the mid-1930s they took advantage of new orders and rising values. The interwar years were, in general, hard times for British industry, in particular for its traditional trades, and therefore represented a special challenge to managerial skills and acumen. The personalities of the company’s leaders and the organisational structures which they devised form the central themes of this chapter.

What were the struggles of his youth, what acts Made him the greatest figure of his day: Of how he fought, fished, hunted, worked all night …1

W.H. Auden, ‘Who’s Who’ (1933–38)

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  1. Edgar Jones
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© 1990 GKN plc

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Jones, E. (1990). The Management and Organisation of GKN. In: A History of GKN. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09664-0_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09664-0_8

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-09666-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-09664-0

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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