ABSTRACT
In the introductory essay, Maurice Garner refers to four factors which appear to be decisive in their influence upon the relationships of governments with their public enterprises. One of these which he lables “the technical factor” covers specific activities of operating managements: the appraisal of options, the balancing of objectives, the control of performance. These activities have been the subject of a programme of research on which we have been engaged at the London Business School. The present essay gives an overview of this work, and refers to other papers in which we have reported in more detail the individual parts of the programme. We undertook studies in four of the U.K.’s nationalised industries: Electricity, Gas, Rail and Coal. We were given very generous access to internal records and working papers in these industries, and we used this as an opportunity for developing and testing propositions about the management of public enterprises which might have further application beyond these specific industries and outside the U.K. 1
