Splitting in unsent letters: Writing as a social practice and a psychological activity

Social History

Volumn 26, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 318-338

  Roper, Michael ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0345893939     PISSN: 03071022     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03071020110070891     Document Type: Article

References (97)

1. Unless otherwise stated, the following references to letters and manuscripts relate to the archive at Henley Management College. Lyndall Urwick memo (hereafter LU) 10/11/52, 3-4, Archive Box (hereafter AB) 6d.
2. These issues are very usefully discussed in the introduction to Lyndal Roper's Oedipus and the Devil, which assesses the impact of the cultural turn on histories of gender and the body. Linguistic approaches, she argues, have 'short-circuited the realm between language and subjectivity, as if there were no space here to be bridged. Language, by means of its social character, simply impressed a social construction of gender upon the wax of the individual psyche'. Oedipus and the Devil. Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe (London, 1994), 20.
3. G. Dawson, Soldier Heroes. British Adventure, Empire and the Imagining of Masculinities (London, 1994), 23.
4. W. Ong, Orality and Literacy. The Technologising of the Word (London, 1982), 78-9, 101.
5. ibid., 82.
6. ibid., 105.
7. ibid., 81.
8. Dawson, op. cit., 23.
9. ibid., 48.
10. ibid., 283.
11. J. Steiner, Psychic Retreats. Pathological Organisations in Psychotic, Neurotic, and Borderline Patients (London, 1993), 6.
12. M. Klein, 'Mourning and its relation to manic depressive states', Love, Guilt and Reparation and Other Works 1921-1945 (London, 1988), 349.
13. I. Craib, 'Social constructionism as a social psychosis', Sociology, XXXI, 1 (February 1997), 3.
14. Klein, 'Mourning', op. cit., 346; R. D. Hinshelwood, A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought (London, 1989), 147, 344.
15. Klein, 'Mourning', op. cit., 346; R. D. Hinshelwood, A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought (London, 1989), 147, 344.
16. H. Segal, Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein (London, 1988), 82-3.
17. For a statement of this position see G. Stedman Jones, 'The determinist fix: some obstacles to the further development of the linguistic approach to history in the 1990s', History Workshop Journal, XLII (Autumn 1996), 19-37. The epistemological core of this new history, Stedman Jones remarks, was that it 'by-passed the idea of language as a reflection of reality' (20).
18. Patrick Joyce, Democratic Subjects. The Self and the Social in Nineteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1994), 2.
19. As Craib has observed, such a view seems to suggest that psychic processes are simply 'enactments of cultural scripts': op. cit., 9.
20. Joyce, op. cit., 11.
21. Joyce argues that his approach does not imply linguistic determinism, since gaps between the signifier and the signified mean that negotiation is always possible (ibid., 13-14). But this then raises the question of why writers are led to negotiate in the ways they do, investing in and refashioning one social script rather than another.
22. ibid., 24-5; 41-5.
23. See M. Roper, 'Re-remembering the soldier hero. The composure and re-composure of masculinity in memories of the Great War', History Workshop Journal, L (Autumn 2000), 181-205.
24. For an attempt to think about the links between biography and the place of public moralism in management thought, see M. Roper, 'Masculinity and the biographical meanings of management theory: Lyndall Urwick and the making of scientific management in inter-war Britain', Gender, Work and Organization, VIII, 2 (April 2001), 182-205.
25. Stedman Jones's effort to breathe new life into the cultural turn also seems to founder somewhat on a sketchy notion of subjectivity. After having argued that the historian must give up on any sense of 'an external pre-linguistic reference point' (op. cit., 20), he goes on to describe a model of the construction of meaning in which subjectivities seem, after all, to be in some way pre-figurative: 'If all action is meaningful, meaning arises through the multiple and diverse relationships between subjectivities' (op. cit., 28, italics mine). It is not clear what is meant by 'subjectivities' here, but it does appear that in Stedman Jones's terms these 'subjectivities' have efficacy in the construction of meaning. As with Joyce, the negotiation out of Marxism leads to a well-developed critique of the idea of pre-constitutive 'external', material determinations, but not of the relationship between 'internal' processes and language.
26. Stedman Jones's effort to breathe new life into the cultural turn also seems to founder somewhat on a sketchy notion of subjectivity. After having argued that the historian must give up on any sense of 'an external pre-linguistic reference point' (op. cit., 20), he goes on to describe a model of the construction of meaning in which subjectivities seem, after all, to be in some way pre-figurative: 'If all action is meaningful, meaning arises through the multiple and diverse relationships between subjectivities' (op. cit., 28, italics mine). It is not clear what is meant by 'subjectivities' here, but it does appear that in Stedman Jones's terms these 'subjectivities' have efficacy in the construction of meaning. As with Joyce, the negotiation out of Marxism leads to a well-developed critique of the idea of pre-constitutive 'external', material determinations, but not of the relationship between 'internal' processes and language.
27. S. Collini, Public Moralists. Political Thought and Intellectual Life in Britain 1850-1930 (Oxford, 1993), 63-6.
28. ibid., 74.
29. ibid., 89.
30. S. Pedersen and P. Mandler (eds), After the Victorians. Private Conscience and Public Duty in Modern Britain. Essays in Memory of John Clive (London, 1994), 2.
31. Quoted in H. Lee, Virginia Woolf (London, 1996), 339.
32. B. Pimlott (ed.), The Second World War Diary of Hugh Dalton 1940-45 (London, 1986), 333.
33. Urwick, 'Notes on the life and work of Lyndall Urwick' (London, 1959), 20.
34. Urwick first met Rowntree at the Oxford Conferences while a manager and partner of Fownes and, encouraged by him, began to develop his ideas on management reform. He gave a paper on management reform to the Fabian summer school in 1921. Urwick, 'Personal note on Lt Col. Lyndall Fownes Urwick', undated ms, AB 10c, 20.
35. Urwick, 'Personal note', op. cit., 65.
36. L. Urwick, The Golden Book of Management. A Historical Record of the Life and Work of Seventy Pioneers (London, 1956); L. Urwick and E. F. L. Brech, The Making of Scientific Management. Volume I. Thirteen Pioneers (London, 1946).
37. L. Urwick, The Golden Book of Management. A Historical Record of the Life and Work of Seventy Pioneers (London, 1956); L. Urwick and E. F. L. Brech, The Making of Scientific Management. Volume I. Thirteen Pioneers (London, 1946).
38. Similarly, Edward Elbourne, co-founder of the British Institute of Administration, had an ideal of professional management which he pursued 'consistently and unselfishly, often to his great personal disadvantage' (Urwick and Brech, op. cit., 32-6, 153).
39. L. Urwick, The Elements of Administration (London, 1943), 8. Poor structure, Urwick commented in 1937, 'opens the way to every type of dishonesty and intrigue' . See his 'Organization as a technical problem' in L. Gulick and L. Urwick (eds), Papers in the Science of Administration (New York, 1937), 85.
40. L. Urwick, The Elements of Administration (London, 1943), 8. Poor structure, Urwick commented in 1937, 'opens the way to every type of dishonesty and intrigue' . See his 'Organization as a technical problem' in L. Gulick and L. Urwick (eds), Papers in the Science of Administration (New York, 1937), 85.
41. Urwick, Elements, op. cit., 8.
42. In 1956 alone - not an unusually prolific year for Urwick - he published two books and thirteen articles on management themes. Urwick, Orr and Partners, L. Urwick. A Bibliography (London, 1958), 27-9.
43. 'Notes on the life and work', op. cit., 20.
44. For a detailed account see N. Tiratsoo and J. Tomlinson, Industrial Efficiency and State Intervention. Labour 1939-51 (London, 1993), 21-63.
45. H. Slater, Henley at Greenlands. Forty Years of Management Development (Henley-upon-Thames, 1989), 35.
46. LU to Swainston, 15/6/42. Unless stated otherwise, all correspondence between Urwick and Swainston relating to the management college is in AB6b.
47. Swainston to LU, 18/3/42.
48. LU to Appley, 18/3/52. Unless stated otherwise, all correspondence relating to Appley and the AMA study is in AB6d. See also Urwick's later confession that he had used the AMA study as a pretext for his resignation. LU to Livock, 10/9/56, AB23a.
49. Appley to LU, 24/1/52.
50. LU to Appley, 18/2/52. The offer to waive his salary may also, however, have helped relieve the burden of expectation.
51. Swainston to LU, 9/8/43.
52. Appley to LU, 25/3/52.
53. LU to Appley, 27/3/52.
54. LU memo, 10/11/52, 2.
55. See, for example, LU to Appley, 30/11/52, which confesses to the difficulties caused by his unfamiliarity with 'the generally accepted American practice of trying to conduct social research by means of questionnaires'.
56. LU to Appley, 1/2/52, and Urwick's 'Note on the life', in which he describes his first marriage (65).
57. LU to Appley, 1/2/52.
58. LU to Appley, 30/11/52.
59. Collini, op. cit., 65.
60. LU memo 10/11/52, 3-4.
61. LU to Douglas Williams, 29/3/54.
62. LU to Swainston, undated 'Draft', 2.
63. ibid., 2.
64. ibid.
65. ibid., 3.
66. LU to Swainston, 12/8/43.
67. H. Rosenfeld, 'On the psychopathology of narcissism: a clinical approach', Impasse and Interpretation: Therapeutic and Anti-therapeutic Factors in the Psycho-analytic Treatment of Psychotic, Borderline, and Neurotic Patients (London, 1987), 177.
68. A. Silbertson, Education and Training for Industrial Management. A Critical Survey, Management Publications (London, 1955), 31. The difficulties were partly due to the length of the Diploma (five years part-time), and the reluctance of employers to grant day-release. The scheme also operated from the technical colleges, whose status among aspiring managers was not highly regarded and who lacked the prestige to attract highly qualified teaching staff. The standard of teaching was widely criticized. 'Report to the Working Party of the National Scheme of Management Studies from BIM', BIM Council Minutes, C(55) 58.1, 7/12/55; T. M. Mosson, Management Education in Five European Countries (London, 1965), 163-72.
69. A. Silbertson, Education and Training for Industrial Management. A Critical Survey, Management Publications (London, 1955), 31. The difficulties were partly due to the length of the Diploma (five years part-time), and the reluctance of employers to grant day-release. The scheme also operated from the technical colleges, whose status among aspiring managers was not highly regarded and who lacked the prestige to attract highly qualified teaching staff. The standard of teaching was widely criticized. 'Report to the Working Party of the National Scheme of Management Studies from BIM', BIM Council Minutes, C(55) 58.1, 7/12/55; T. M. Mosson, Management Education in Five European Countries (London, 1965), 163-72.
70. In his letter, Swainston had stated that 'I know how strongly you feel about stressing the professional element of Management, but I do urge you not to ride this hobby horse too hard.' Swainston to LU, 24/8/56. Unless stated otherwise, all correspondence relating to the 1947 Report and proposed reforms of the 'Urwick scheme' in 1957 is in AB23a.
71. LU to Dr R. R. Butler, 21/1/57, 1-2.
72. Oakley to LU, 4/2/57.
73. LU to Oakley, 8/2/57, 1.
74. Steiner, op. cit., 1.
75. ibid., 2-3.
76. LU to Oakley, 8/2/57, 1, 2.
77. ibid., 12.
78. ibid., 9.
79. See also Roper, op. cit., 'Masculinity and the biographical meanings of management theory'.
80. LU to Oakley, 8/2/57, 4.
81. ibid., 2; LU to Oakley 10/2/57, 3.
82. LU to Oakley, 20/11/56. On his final appearance as Director of the BIM in December 1955, Leo Russell had taken the opportunity to pin the blame on Urwick for the shortcomings in the scheme. In his comments on the Working Party he was careful to avoid the common parlance, calling it 'the BIM/MoE scheme' rather than the 'Urwick scheme'. He distinguished its present form from the 'anomalies in the original Urwick Report which it was felt seriously restricted the effectiveness of the Scheme'. 'Report by the Chairman of the Education and Training Committee', C (55) M/6, 7/12/55.
83. For example, 'I know, and I think you'll agree with me, that the Working Party was started with a clear intention of "busting" the "Urwick Report". Hooper was Vice-Chairman then; he's a bitterly jealous man' (LU to Oakley, 8/2/57, 2). As is common in everyday speech, Urwick used the word 'jealousy' in place of envy (Segal, op. cit., 39). Jealousy, Klein argues, is based on love, and aims in a triangular relationship to remove the rival. By contrast, envy is a subject-object relation. The feelings that Urwick ascribed to Russell and others were, I am arguing, projections of Urwick's envy. His avoidance of the word might be seen as a further attempt to conceal its recognition in himself.
84. LU to Oakley, 9/2/57, draft 2, 1, 4.
85. LU to Oakley, 8/2/57, 8.
86. ibid., 1.
87. LU to Oakley, 10/2/57, 4.
88. Travel diary, 10/5/57, private collection.
89. ibid., 7/6/57.
90. LU to Oakley, 8/2/57, 8.
91. Adam to Miss D. Hook, 14/1/57, AB2b.
92. By June 1957, in Urwick Orr and Partners' publicity blurb on Urwick, he was being described as a writer and speaker rather than a public official or executive. He had 'given up executive work in order to devote his time to lecturing and writing about the art of management'. Preface to L. Urwick, The Life and Work of Frederick Taylor (London, 1957).
93. 'Memorandum on the Final Report of the Working Party on Education for Management', 2/7/59, AB23b.
94. 'I must confess also that I was mildly influenced by the pleasant prospect of being able to pull a long nose at the management people in this country and at the "establishment", who have left me virtually unemployed as far as public work in this country is concerned for the past ten years,' he wrote in 1961. LU to 'Mike', 12/5/61, AB20a.
95. Interview with Evelyn Cross, 16/11/96.
96. M. Klein, 'Notes on some schizoid mechanisms', Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963 (London, 1988), 11.
97. Craib, op. cit., 14.