Baggage Taken Ashore: The Outlook of Senior Waterfront Management in the 1950s

Abstract

Strategic choice by management has attracted much attention in recent years. This paper lends weight to those scholars who have called for a 'culturalist' under standing of management behaviour. It looks at the inefficient use of waterfront labour in the 1950s and at the rigid refusal of senior waterfront management to engage in meaningful consultation with their employees or their union. Among the key factors determining top managers' approach was a common, anachronistic mindset resting on a pervasive seagoing culture which defined any shore-based activity as a second-rate derivative of the shipping industry. Although ships were often loading or unloading in port for longer periods than they were at sea, stevedoring remained for top management an inferior activity that seldom re ceived first call on their strategic thinking. The traditional maritime culture also made for a naive, authoritarian approach to labour-particularly among senior management in the major domestically-owned shipping group in Australia.