An Empirical Investigation into the Transition of Change within three formerly Nationalised Companies

The article in the previous issue provided a background to privatisation and highlighted how previously nationalised companies were managing the transition of change. This article continues this theme at a more detailed level and presents details of applied research into three formerly nationalised companies, namely: The National Remote Sensing Centre, Royal Ordnance Environmental and The Stationery Office. It concluded that pre privatisation, notions of quality service, lower prices and working for the good of consumers was not achieved, as profits were not seen as a commercial requirement. Of the companies researched, two seemed to be strongly influenced by the culture of their new parent company. The two companies that have adopted a marketing culture seem to have fared better than the one company with a strong financial culture. Despite the moves towards being more marketing orientated it is also concluded that all three companies were having difficulty in breaking free from an inbred philosophy of production orientation.