Exporting the “Gospel of Productivity”: United States Technical Assistance and British Industry 1945–1960

Nick Tiratsoo and Jim Tomlimon

Business History Review, 1997, vol. 71, issue 1, 41-81

Abstract: This article examines the attempts by the United States to export industrial and managerial techniques to Britain in the early post-war years. It analyses the types of technical assistance offered by the U.S., the mechanisms developed to deliver this assistance, and the response of both British industry and government. The conclusion offered is that whilst there were problems of “fit” between the techniques advocated by U.S. agencies and the conditions faced by British industry, overall the reluctance of the British to embrace American techniques did not reflect a rounded assessment of their applicability so much as a series of institutional blockages and hostile attitudes.

Date: 1997
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