Staff Profile
Professor Alan McKinlay
Prof of Human Resource Management
I was awarded my DPhil from Nuffield College, Oxford University in 1986. My thesis was about how management strategies, power and skill played out in Clydeside shipyards and factories between the wars. The politics of skill remains one of my interests, both historically and in the contemporary world of work.
Over the years I have researched and written about historical and contemporary management strategy and practices; unionisation; and new forms of work. I have examined these issues in many settings, from a Motorola factory making mobile phones to Ford car factories through to television studios. The Motorola study was published by Routledge in 2014, Foucault, governmentality and organization: Inside 'the Factory of the Future', with Phil Taylor. In the last five years I have published four articles in Business History: Protestantism and the rise of capitalism; writing gender into business history; competitive capabilities in jute; and management development in Tata after 1947. I have also published book chapters and articles on governmentality and strategy, accounting and management.
My most recent book is a political biography, Jimmy Reid: A Clyde built man which was published by Liverpool University Press in September 2019.
My current research is about management strategy and practices in the BBC and ITV. This is a project that I'm working on with Chris Carter, Edinburgh University. We have published 'Strategic change, leadership and accounting: A triptych of organizational reform', with Crawford Spence, in Public Administration, Epub, 2018. A new project is about the changing definitions and experiences of the career since 1945. My research on the career focuses on financial services. An early output will tell the story of the making of the marriage bar in British retail banking.
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Articles
- Morris J, McKinlay A, Farrell C. The ties that bind us: Networks, projects and careers in British TV. Human Relations 2023, 76(2), 341-361.
- McKinlay A, Masrani S, Pezet E. Foucault, governing and knowledge: Everyday diplomacy in Tata Steel, 1907–1925. Business History 2023, epub ahead of print.
- Mackenzie E, McKinlay A. Hope labour and the psychic life of cultural work. Human Relations 2021, 74(11), 1841-1863.
- Masrani S, Perriton L, McKinlay A. Getting together, living together, thinking together: Management development at Tata Sons 1940-1960. Business History 2021, 63(1), 127-145.
- Carter C, Spence C, McKinlay A. Strategic change, leadership and accounting: a triptych of organizational reform. Public Administration 2020, 98(1), 62-91.
- Masrani S, McKiernan P, McKinlay A. Strategic responses to low-cost competition: Technological lock-in in the Dundee jute industry. Business History 2018, 62(6), 960-981.
- McKinlay A, Pezet E. Foucault, governmentality, strategy: from the ear of the sovereign to the multitude. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 2018, 53, 57-68.
- Durepos G, McKinlay A, Taylor S. Narrating histories of women at work: Archives, stories, and the promise of feminism. Business History 2017, 59(8), 1261-1279.
- Durepo G, McKinlay A, Taylor S. Narrating Histories of Gender at work: In and out of the archive. Business History 2016. Submitted.
- McKinlay A, Mutch A. 'Accountable creatures': Scottish Presbyterianism, accountability and managerial capitalism. Business History 2015, 57(2), 241-256.
- McKinlay A. Following Foucault into the archives: Clerks, careers and cartoons. Management and Organizational History 2013, 8(2), 137-154.
- Carter C, McKinlay A. Cultures of Strategy: Remaking the BBC, 1985-2003. Business History 2013. In Press.
- Carter C, McKinlay A. Cultures of strategy: Remaking the BBC, 1968-2003. Business History 2013, 55(7), 1228-1246.
- McKinlay A. Banking, bureaucracy and the career: the curious case of Mr Notman. Business History 2013, 55(3), 431-447.
- McKinlay A, Carter C, Pezet E. Governmentality, power and organization. Management and Organizational History 2012, 7(1), 3-15.
- McKinlay A, Wilson J. 'All they lose is scream': Foucault, Ford and mass production. Management & Organizational History 2012, 7(1), 45-60.
- McKinlay A, Carter C, Pezet E, Clegg S. Using Foucault to Make Strategy. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 2010, 23(8), 1012-1031.
- Wilson JM, McKinlay A. Rethinking the assembly line: Organisation, performance and productivity in Ford Motor Company, c. 1908–27. Business History 2010, 52(5), 760-778.
- Coopey R, McKinlay A. Power without knowledge? Foucault and Fordism, c.1900-50. Labor History 2010, 51(1), 107-125.
- McKinlay A. Performativity and the politics of identity: Putting Butler to work. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 2010, 21(3), 232-242.
- Knox W, McKinlay A. American multinationals and british trade unions, c.1945-1974. Labor History 2010, 51(2), 211-229.
- Knox W, McKinlay A. American corporations and european labor. Labor History 2010, 51(2), 167-172.
- McKinlay A, Pezet E. Accounting for Foucault. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 2010, 21(6), 486-495.
- Lilley S, McKinlay A. Matters of fact / matters of fiction: Imagining and implementing institutional change. Culture and Organisation 2009, 15(2), 129-133.
- Townley B, Beech N, McKinlay A. Managing in the creative industries: Managing the motley crew. Human Relations 2009, 62(7), 939-962.
- McKinlay A. Foucault, plague, defoe. Culture and Organization 2009, 15(2), 167-184.
- Findlay P, McKinlay A, Marks A, Thompson P. Collective bargaining and new work regimes: ‘too important to be left to bosses’. Industrial Relations Journal 2009, 40(3), 235-251.
- McKinlay A, Quinn B. Remaking management, work and industrial relations: British commercial television, c. 1979-2000. Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 2007, 23/24, 155-180.
- McKinlay A, Wilson RG. 'Small acts of cunning': Bureaucracy, inspection and the career, c. 1890-1914. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 2006, 17(5), 657-678.
- Carter C, McKinlay A, Rowlinson M. Foucault, Management and History. Organization 2002, 9(4), 515-526.
- Findlay P, McKinlay A, Marks A, Thompson P. In search of perfect people: Teamwork and team players in the Scottish spirits industry. Human Relations 2000, 53(12), 1549-1574.
- Findlay P, McKinlay A, Marks A, Thompson P. "Labouring to learn": Organisational learning and mutual gains. Employee Relations 2000, 22(5), 485-502.
- Marks A, Findlay P, Hine J, McKinlay A, Thompson P. The politics of partnership? Innovation in employment relations in the Scottish spirits industry. British Journal of Industrial Relations 1998, 36(2), 209-226.
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Authored Books
- Knox WWJ, McKinlay A. Jimmy Reid: A Clyde-Built Man. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 2019.
- McKinlay A, Pezet E. Foucault and Managerial Governmentality: Rethinking the Management of Populations, Organizations and Individuals. London: Routledge, 2017.
- McKinlay A, Taylor P. Foucault, Governmentality, Organization: Inside the Factory of the Future. London: Routledge, 2014.
- McKinlay A, Taylor P. Foucault, Governmentality and Organization: Inside the Factory of the Future. London, UK: Routledge, 2014.
- McKinlay A, Taylor P. Foucault, Governmentality and Organization: Inside the Factory of the Future. New York: Routledge, 2014.
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Book Chapters
- McKinlay A, Pezet E. Organizing Foucault: power, knowledge and governmentality. In: S. Clegg and M. Pina e Cunha, ed. Management, Organizations and Contemporary Social Theory. London, UK: Routledge, 2019, pp.326.
- Carter C, McKinlay A. Governing through numbers: Foucault, Governmentality and Accounting. In: Roslender, R, ed. Routledge Companion to Critical Accounting. London, UK: Routledge, 2018.
- McKinlay A. Making Governmentality II: An Interview with Nikolas Rose. In: McKinlay, A; Pezet, E, ed. Foucault and Managerial Governmentality: Rethinking the Management of Populations, Organizations and Individuals. London: Routledge, 2017.
- McKinlay A. Making Governmentality I: An Interview with Peter Miller. In: Foucault and Managerial Governmentality: Rethinking the Management of Populations, Organizations and Individuals. London: Routledge, 2017, pp.197-209.
- McKinlay A, Pezet E. Governmentality: The Career of a Concept. In: McKinlay, A; Pezet, E, ed. Foucault and Managerial Governmentality: Rethinking the Management of Populations, Organizations and Individuals. London: Routledge, 2017, pp.3-30.
- McKinlay A, Taylor S. 'Bottled magic': The business of self-knowledge. In: Foucault and Managerial Governmentality: Rethinking the Management of Populations, Organizations and Individuals. London: Routledge, 2017, pp.159-177.
- Healey P. Planning. In: Mark Bevir and R.A.W. Rhodes, ed. Routledge Handbook of Interpretive Political Science. Abingdon: Routledge, 2015, pp.397-410.
- McKinlay A, Pezet E. Management and Foucault. In: Routledge Handbook of Interpretive Political Science. Taylor and Francis Inc, 2015, pp.411-424.
- McKinlay A. From organised to disorganised capital? British employer associations, 1897-2010. In: Gregor Gall and Tony Dundon, ed. Global Anti-Unionism: Nature, Dynamics, Trajectories and Outcomes. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp.39-62.
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Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)
- McKinlay A, Philips J, Mackenzie E, Gibbs E, Procter S, McNulty D. Workers’ Voice and Security in a Just Transition: Rolls Royce and Redundancies in Inchinnan, Scotland. In: The 13th European Regional Congress of the International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA). 2022, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: International Labour and Employment Relations Association.
- Mackenzie E, McKinlay A. Hope labour in cultural work: Reflecting on the limits and possibilities for collective action. In: BSA Annual Conference 2018: Identity, Community and Social Solidarity. 2018, Northumbria University: British Sociological Association.
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Review
- Marks A, Findlay P, Hine J, Thompson P, Mckinlay A. The Manufacturing of Management Strategy: Workplace Innovation and Employment Relations in the Scottish Spirits Industry. Management Research News 1997, 20(2/3), 21-21.