ABSTRACT
In early 1959 Jim Moore, an experienced universal grinder at the tool works operated by Thompson and Company Limited in Sheffield, Yorkshire, was offered the post of foreman of the section he was working in. A trade unionist and a critical member of a management-employee production committee, Jim believed that supervisors at the tool works had to be in complete agreement with their superiors. He also realised that he would suffer an immediate and severe drop in income if he accepted the offer. Nevertheless, he and his wife Margaret decided he should accept. Despite the initial disadvantages, they felt it was Jim's opportunity to take the first step in what they hoped would become a successful managerial career in the tool works. Jim felt there was ‘not much opposition’ standing in the way of further promotion in this plant of the Thompson Company. He hoped that by determination, hard work and a little luck he could capitalise on this opportunity. But he wondered how he should go about attaining further promotion.
