Managerial decision making, structure and agency: A case study of Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited 1883-1915

Abstract

The thesis develops a theory of managerial decision making based on the work of two social theorists, Giddens and Lloyd. The use of such theorists makes explicit a particular relationship between structure and agency. Neither theorist privileges ether structure or agency, seeking, rather, to establish how structure can influence agency, and how agency can influence structure. The theory that is developed examines notions of choice and purposive action and the extent to which social and physical structures can impact, and are impacted on and by, social actors. Such a theory also allows explicit treatment of time and space, two concepts often ignored in theorising managerial decision making. Once the theory has been developed, it is then tested by application to managerial decision making in Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited, from establishment in 1883, up until 1915, when the Newcastle Steelworks were opened. ... The thesis explicitly considers the roles of the directors and senior managerial staff and the ways in which the choices of these individuals were shaped by the social and physical structures within which they were embedded. Relationships between and among directors, senior managers and the workforce at Broken Hill are also placed in structural context. Finally, there is a brief demonstration of how a theory of managerial decision making which explicitly considers issues of structure and agency, and time and space, is superior to those theories which currently dominate theories of managerial decision making.