Snakes and career ladders in the investment banking industry: the making of Barclays De Zoete Wedd (BZW) - an international perspective, 1982-96

Carol Royal

Accounting History Review, 2003, vol. 13, issue 2, 233-262

Abstract: This paper emphasises the importance of business history for analysing labour market structures and practices in financial markets in the United Kingdom and more particularly at Barclays De Zoete Wedd (BZW), the international investment banking arm of the British bank Barclays plc. By adopting an historical perspective, this study departs from existing literature and presents new explanations concerning the importance of the relationship between business history and the origins and functions of internal labour markets. The theoretical framework elaborated involves a model and a timeline in its analysis, which highlights significant emerging patterns in internal labour markets that become evident over time. The study reveals evidence that, contrary to the arguments raised by scholars which suggest a decline in internal labour market practices in favour of a return to a more market-based system, internal labour market arrangements continue to apply to an organisation such as BZW at all stages in its organisational development.

Keywords: business history; labour markets; internal labour markets; organisational development; managing internally (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0958520032000085003 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:acbsfi:v:13:y:2003:i:2:p:233-262

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rabf21

DOI: 10.1080/0958520032000085003

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting History Review is currently edited by Stephen Walker

More articles in Accounting History Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().