The Rise of the Reluctant Entrepreneurs

DR. EMILY BOYLE IS A LECTURER IN Organisation Studies and Management at the University of Ulster atJordanstown in Northern Ireland. The dramatic rise in the number of self-employed businessmen in the United Kingdom over the last fifteen years has provided an impetus for research into the causes of 'entrepreneurship'. Much of this research has centred on the effects of psychological, sociological and economic factors on the individuals concerned. In this article, however, it is argued that the recent mushrooming of self-employment has to some extent been contrived by big business as a response to the growing uncertainty and hostility in their environments. Many large firms have found it advantageous to lay-off whole classes of employees and then sub-contract their work back out to them as self-employed businessmen.

This article is based on a case study of one such class of workers, namely the milk deliverymen of Dale Farm Dairies in Northern Ireland who were laid off as full-time employees (along with the milkmen from the other major dairies in the province) in 1984/85 and enfranchised as self-employed businessmen. The article examines both the theoretical and practical reasons for the actions of the dairies and analyses the circumstances under which the self-employed milkmen now operate.