the choices ahead part 5: What is meant by The Left? A switch to Grass Roots

This series is built around several independent propositions. One of these is that if managers (and personnel specialists in particular) are to be more effective then they will have to become more politically aware and seek to influence national decisions on work, employment and the economy. The assumption is that there is little point in slogging away at plant level trying to increase motivation, involvement and commitment and generally seeking to improve performance if the national climate is destructive of all these things. This is to pour water into a barrel with a huge hole in the bottom; it is more reasonable to try to repair the hole even if this means trying to influence events taking place outside the plant and therefore less under the manager's direct control. This is a new situation for the manager to face. Another aspect of my analysis is that in this socio‐political environment in which the organisation operates there are two influences in particular which have revolutionised our approach to the work and employment situation over the past century and, although these twin influences have had an enormous influence on industry and business, they have had virtually no effect on the way politicians behave or how they organise their own business. One of these influences is what we have learned about how to conduct human relationships and the other is the formal body of knowledge about management which has been built up over this period. Thus politicians, particularly the henchmen of the left‐wing political estate, are out of step with that large part of the national business and industrial community which has up‐dated itself on these two aspects of authority relationships and formal management procedures.