Wilfred Brown, Baron Brown

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Wilfred (William) Banks Duncan Brown, Baron Brown PC MBE (* 29. November 1908 in Greenock , Renfrewshire , Scotland ; † 17th March 1985 in London ) was a British business manager , author and politician of the Labor Party , which in 1964 as a Life Peer became a member of the House of Lords under the Life Peerages Act 1958 .

Life

Economic Manager and Glacier Project

Brown joined the Glacier Metal Company as a manager after attending the Rossall School in 1931 and was its chairman and managing director from 1939 to 1965. Brown, who became a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1944 , also wrote numerous books on economic topics such as management .

During his time as CEO of the Glacier Metal Company, he carried out the so-called Glacier Project between 1948 and 1965 together with the Canadian psychoanalyst and organizational development specialist Elliott Jaques . This long-term study, sponsored by the company and its works council , contributed to the development of fairer wage models, theories on stratified random samples , discretionary periods, work levels, product price analyzes and opportunities for advancement.

The results of this project, which the American economist and pioneer of management theory Peter Drucker called "the most extensive study of actual worker behavior in large-scale industry", Brown and Jaques published in books such as Product Analysis Pricing, a method for setting policies for the delegation of pricing decisions and the control of expense and profitability (1964) and Glacier Project Papers (1965).

At the same time, Brown also supported the theoretical and scientifically accompanied training of managers by founding the Glacier Institute of Management , but also from 1949 to 1965 as chairman of the board of directors of Acton Technical College and Brunel College of Technology , the forerunners of Brunel University founded in 1966 Uxbridge .

House of Lords and Junior Minister

By a Letters Patent of December 22, 1965, Brown was that from 1964 to 1965 and Director of Associated Engineering was due to the Life Peerages Act 1958 as a life peer with the title Baron Brown , of Machrihanish in the County of Argyllshire, in the peerage appointed and was thus a member of the House of Lords until his death.

Shortly thereafter, he was appointed Minister of State in the Board of Trade ( Board of Trade ) in 1965 by Harold Wilson , who had become the new Prime Minister through the Labor Party victory in the general election of October 15, 1964 , and held this position until the end of Wilson's term in office after the Labor Party's defeat in the general election on June 18, 1970 .

During this time he also served as Pro-Chancellor of Brunel University between 1966 and 1980 and also received honorary doctorates from Brunel University in 1966 (Hon. D.Tech.) And the University of Illinois in 1967 (Hon. LL.D.). Furthermore, at the end of his tenure as Minister of State in 1970, he also became Privy Councilor and in 1972 he received another honorary doctorate from the Cranfield Institute of Technology (Hon. D.Sc.).

Baron Brown was also a member of the Upper House Committees for the European Communities ( Select Committee on the European Communities ) and for Science and Technology ( Select Committee on Science and Technology ) as well as a member of the Industrial Development Advisory during his membership in the House of Lords Board ) and chairman of the Machine Tool Advisory Committee .

Publications

In addition to several articles in specialist journals , Brown wrote a number of specialist books that dealt in particular with operational processes and management theory. His most famous publications include:

  • Managers, Men and Morale , co-author Winifred Raphael, London: Macdonald and Evans, 1948
  • Exploration In Management , London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1960
  • Piecework Abandoned - The Effect of Wage Incentive Systems on Managerial Authority , London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1962
  • Product Analysis Pricing, a method for setting policies for the delegation of pricing decisions and the control of expense and profitability , co-author Elliot Jaques, Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1964
  • Glacier Project Papers , co-author Elliot Jaques, London: Heinemann, 1965
  • Organization , London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1971
  • The Earnings Conflict - proposals for tackling the emerging crisis of industrial relations, unemployment, and wage inflation , New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1973
  • Participation , Bradford, UK: MCB Books, 1975
  • Proposals for a flexible national wage policy , 1979, ISBN 0856950246
  • Bismarck to Bullock: Conversations about institutions in politics and industry in Britain and Germany , co-author Wolfgang Hirsch-Weber, London: Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society, 1983

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 43506, HMSO, London, December 4, 1964, p. 10317 ( PDF , accessed October 10, 2013, English).
personal data
SURNAME Brown, Wilfred, Baron Brown
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brown, Wilfred Banks Duncan, Baron Brown (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, author and business manager
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenock , Renfrewshire , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1985
Place of death London