ABSTRACT
The problems involved in maintaining and improving efficiency in nationalised industry are those of all large scale enterprises but are in a more acute form. The solution lies in decentralisation and flexibility rather than in uniformity; it is possible to set standards for the measurement and promotion of efficiency and good management. The main industries which have been nationalised in whole or in part are coal, transport, electricity and gas. Mr. R. H. Thornton has said that 'the nation as a shareholder expects a healthy trading account; as a customer it expects the moon'. 'State-owned Enterprise: Problems of Political Control'. Study for Nuffield College, 1949. Basically, for purposes of decentralisation, the aim should be to sub-divide the industry into self-contained operational units, left with a maximum of authority and responsibility within these lines. It is only by means of more or less autonomous and self-contained units that this object this vital object can be attained under conditions of nationalisation.
