BOOKS FOR MANAGERS

The story of the oil's first discovery and exploration, its initial coming on stream in the mid-1970s, the commitment to rapid depletion policy, the attempt to assert State participation largely successfully resisted by the oil multinationals, the dismantling of BNOC, the underwriting of the profligate Thatcher 'experiment' are all interwoven with a narrative that leads to an inexorable conclusion. An opportunity to reconstruct the economy of Britain and its regions - and the democracy of its peoples - was squandered.

The apostrophe in the book's title is perhaps misplaced. There were not one but many fools and, as Harvie makes clear, they ranged across the political spectrum - with perhaps the exception of the Left in Scotland for whom the politics and economics of oil and the national question were part of a developed critique of monopoly capitalism which had posed the necessity of self- determination for three decades before the discovery of oil.

The oscillating relationship between the politics of oil and the Scottish Nationalist question is central to Harvie's account. It was the backlash of radicalism from the failure to capitalise on the benefits of the industry which fuelled the Nationalist revival. As the oil started to flow and the rush for self- sufficiency was further accelerated by the Yom Kippur Arab--Israeli war and ensuing petro-dollar diplomacy, a Nationalist revival appeared to US consul Funkhouser (the on-the-spot intelligence gatherer for the US majors), some influential sections of the Scottish media (the Thomson organization itself a co-venturer with Occidental in the Piper field) and certain fragments of Scottish capital to be a possible hedge against a Labour government posing increasingly dangerous issues of public control.

The story of North Sea Oil is well told by Harvie, particularly that of the earlier decades. Curiously, the closer it comes to the present the less satisfactory it becomes - Piper Alpha, the Cullen Report, the massive labour upheavals of 1989-- 90, the reconstruction of the regulatory regime and the recent

rationalization within the industry are touched upon but are often dealt with inadequately. The 'normalization' of offshore safety as a contentious issue since Piper Alpha is not dealt with at all by the author. Perhaps Harvie felt he had done enough and that, at nearly 400 pages of often exhilarating narrative, it was time to call a halt on what was already a substantial contribution.

The 'hire and fire' regime of the industry rendered the workforce vulnerable to a situation where systematic safety neglect was combined with minimal government oversight. This neglect of safety became dramatically obvious during the Piper Alpha disaster of 1988 when 167 workers were killed. Piper Alpha exposed a moribund safety system in which the regulator was wholly captured by both an industry obsessed with retaining maximum managerial prerogatives and a government for whom the rapid extraction of hydrocarbons offered an economic lifeline. However, the marginalization of the voice of organized labour and the hostility to trade unionism offshore on the part of the employers are essential both to an understanding of the story Harvie relates and to that which still needs to be told in much greater detail. The North Sea oil industry, with its largely peripheral non- unionized workforce, represents the dark side of HRM - a theme first explored by Carson in his path- breaking The Other Price of Britain's Oil - the unacknowledged and uncomfortable silence about the human cost of oil, until the next tragedy shatters new-found complacency, for a little while at least.

Charles Woolfson

Business Ethics at Work b y ELIZABETH V A L L A N C E , Cambridge University Press, I995 , 191 pp.

Elizabeth Vallance goes beyond mere strategy and not only delivers the 'what to's' of business ethics but also, vitally, gives us the 'how toT.

She deals early with the moral philosophy minefield by means of a reductionist master-stroke that forces us, ultimately, to apply her systems and models in particular situations and not to them. In the process we are brought down to the less rarefied atmosphere of our own business environment. Here, we as practitioners, can be reasonably expected to apply our personal good spirit, acumen and experience instead of feeling cerebrally inadequate, as we might, if having to engage with our worst critics up on the high ground of ethical behaviour. It is her astute definition of the aim of business as, the maximisation of 'long-term owner value', that absolves companies from the 'moral maze' and allows them to deal with the realities of the here and now - as Professor Vallance declares, 'If it (any action in the ethical arena) hurts your business now or in the future, do not do it!'

Her text on 'Business Ethics at Work' is all about furnishing commercial entities with frameworks, processes, tests, checklists, mechanisms, and infra-structure that are accessible, in manageable numbers, ethically sound and really do or could work in the world of entrepreneurs. On our behalf, she attempts to test them to destruction, but consequently shows them to prevail under the most rigorous scrutiny.

Vallance identifies the centrality of 'long-term owner value', 'common decency' and 'justice' as the key concepts that have sufficient gravitas and substance for the 'willing and able' to know how to go on and gain a measure of advantage over those who will not or cannot act within her simple codes.

One gets the sense that the solid nature of the book is the result of an exceptional team effort, whose membership ranges from Aristotle through to Cairncross and Mahoney. It is clear, however, that the captain, prime strategist and business tactician remains Elizabeth Vallance. It could be said that she picks the opposing team as well. Even if such a criticism was valid, it could equally be said that this was done to represent both sides of the debate. She is true to her own

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BOOKS FOR MANAGERS

dictum of representing all of the stakeholders.

Better than trying to operate in a moral vacuum, superior to cracker- barrel business wisdom, clearer than any high-blown morality, and, certainly, a movement towards improvement, this text was, despite being a long time coming (the author's own words), truly worth the wait. As we progress through Part One we witness the development and refinement of the pivotal Ethical Decision Model (EDM). Part Two sees the new-born model cut its teeth on, among others, the stem platforms of marketing, corporate governance and green issues. Part Three extols the practical and approachable nature of the ethical audit. The totality shows how the pursuit of ethical behaviour not only feeds the 'feel good factor' of the company but also contributes to improved strategic performance whilst, at the same time, helping build infra-structure robust enough to support the 'promise of quality' predicated in 'branding by behaviour'.

It is easy to come to this book carrying anxieties over such surrounding issues as 'strategic recruitment', 'business survival' and 'whistle-blowing'. Encountering this work shows that there is little justification for such fears as, in the time honoured fashion of those who seek 'customer delight' rather than bare 'customer care', Professor Vallance has already sought out the major concerns and dealt with them summarily. A core concern of my own centred on the actions of a business fighting for survival. [t seemed to me that such a company would hardly be in a positiom to consider 'long-term owner value' as something to live by in its decision- making process. Rather, it would be likely to produce stasis and, finally, something to die by, if slavishly adhered to. At worst, the EDM stands, due to its assumption of 'survival and protraction', as the logical pre-conditions of 'long-term owner value' strategy, and, at best, as a fail-safe against misguided short-term misdemeanour and/or further business stupidity by the incompetent and the already doomed.

This text says much for Elizabeth Vallance, the person. Her constructs of 'common decency' and 'distributive justice', when seen to apply, soon draw the reader of goodwill into more than a measure of accord.

To some in the worlds of business and philosophy, the stark simplicity of her tenets might seem like sleight of hand. 'Is she guilty, here, of ducking the big moral picture?', some might say. However, on reading the full work, many will come to see how lighting a single candle can at length manifest itself as a form of Humean general good and as a source of light rather than heat.

In the wake of this soon to be seminal work, there can be few excuses for 'non-action' amongst those currently operating in a moral void. The way out of the dark is here.

I would commend this transparent and highly intelligent volume to students and business people alike. It is both a philosophical and a business gem.

lain Fraser

Re-engineering Management - The Mandate for New Leadership by JAMES CHAMPY, Harper Collins Publishers, 1996, paperback edition, ~ 7. 99; ISBN 0 O0 638346 7

In 1990 Business Process Re- engineering (BPR) appeared almost simultaneously in the Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review with articles by Michael Hammer and Thomas Davenport respectively. Although both articles covered broadly the same theme, Michael Hammer's version of events was more radical in its tone and perhaps more accessible to the practising manager. In 1993, when Hammer teamed up with James Champy to write Re- engineering the Corporation it looked set to be a best seller.

To date, Re-engineering the Corporation has sold almost 2,000,000 copies world-wide, giving examples of how organisations have radially changed the way they operate to produce huge improvements in productivity, efficiency etc. However, it largely focuses on the re-engineering of operational activities and sheds little light on how these new operations should be managed. This is precisely the gap that Champy seeks to fill with his second book.

Re-engineering Management starts with Champy's confession that 're- engineering is in trouble.' A fact backed up by the BPR failure rates reported by his own consultancy organisation's survey. However, the failure of re-engineering is not attributed to any fundamental flaw in the philosophy. Champy believes that the 'trouble' is brought about by attempts to link the old command and control management approaches to newly re-engineered work practices.

Using a sailing analogy, Champy outlines his argument for a new type of management. The period up until 1973, he refers to as the plain sailing era, when organisations managed using a command and control approach prospered because the environmental conditions were favourable. Taking the 1973 oil crisis as the watershed, intensifying global competition and increasingly fragmented markets lead him to claim that organisations have since faced, year after year of rough seas.

The book is written in a similar style to Re-engineering the Corporation, giving numerous examples from organisations with which Champy has worked. These case studies provide glimpses of new and different ways of managing.

One of the recurring themes of the book is that a completely new type of management is required for re- engineered organisations. Given that many of the re-engineering case studies involve empowering operational staff to make their own decisions, managers often view themselves as holding less power on completion of the re-engineering exercise. This may be an uncomfortable and unexpected

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