Work Organization Conventions and the Declining Competitiveness of theBritish Shipbuilding Industry, 1930-1970.

International audienceThis articleattributes the declining competitiveness of the British shipbuilding industryfrom the 1930s to employers' slow and imperfect substitution of bureaucraticfor craft conventions of work organization. An explanation is developed forthis excess inertia. First, the article maintains that the interdependent nature ofBritish employers' decision-making on matters of training and work organizationtended to “lock-in” individual firms to a particular configuration. Secondly,it is shown how the uncertainty over the need for reform perceived by the majorityof builders prevented the more progressive minority from using the industry’scollective employers' association to coordinate a timely switch to amore bureaucratic convention. Thirdly, it is argued that once these obstacleswere overcome, the process of achieving organizational reform was slowed oreven blocked by a lack of trust between labor and management