Alan Mckinlay

Alan was awarded his DPhil from Nuffield College, Oxford University in 1986. His 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 his key interests, both historically and in the contemporary world of work.

Over the years Alan has researched and written about historical and contemporary management strategy and practices; unionisation; and new forms of work and organisation. He has examined these issues in many settings, from a Motorola factory making mobile phones, to Ford car factories and television studios. In the last five years Alan has published 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. He has also published book chapters and articles on governmentality and strategy, accounting and management, and networks and project organising in British television production. His most recent book is a political biography, Jimmy Reid: A Clyde built man, which was published by Liverpool University Press in September 2019.