Judy Little, director of group personnel and administration services, 4 Jun 1987
MSS.423/3/LONG 2
4 Jun 1987
Item
┆Subjects include (transcript page numbers given in brackets; side 1 of recording ends on p.18): recognition by Longman in the 1970s of the ASTMS as a bargaining union for white-collar staff (5-6); professionalisation of management following acquisition of Longman by Pearson in 1968 (6-7); need for flexible management structures in publishing (7); evolution of Longman's divisional structure from around 1970 (7-8); need to make redundancies from around 1978, particularly as a result of the loss of the Nigerian business, and the reaction of the ASTMS (9-10); importance of editorial and sales and marketing functions in publishing (10-12); recent provision of sales training by people from outside publishing (12); need to balance focus on editorial quality with commercial considerations (13-15); most of Longman senior management being from an editorial background and little experience of other workplaces (15-16); need to recruit more from outside the publishing industry (17); varying levels of commitment to general management principles among Longman managers (19-20); varying formality of management structures in different parts of the company (20-22); role of female staff in the company (22-24); integration of Longman's different imprints into the central corporate structure (24-25); limited extent of debate and disagreement at board level as compared with lower management levels (26-27); nature of competition in the publishing industry (28-30).