machinery for the decentralisation of government activities). Other
western companies have been active in other parastatals. These
consultants have come in for heavy criticism in Tanzania. They
are extremely expensive, stay for very short periods of time and
frequently use Tanzania as a training ground for young staff fresh
out of business school. They have obtained an access to in-
formation denied even to many a senior Tanzanian and their
views tend to be given much more weight than those of people
who have worked for years in the local situation — indeed it is of-
ten asserted that they charge high fees in part so that their advice
will be regarded as pre-eminent.

No one has seriously questioned the appropriateness of the ex-
perience and training of such consultants as Mckinsey and hence
of the particular type of advice that they have given. Indeed their
work would have to be analysed in detail for this to be possible
and. for the most part, their manuals and recommendations are
confidential. There are however sufficient grounds for doubts
about their possible long-run contribution to socialist develop-
ment, given the nature of their training, their extensive in-
volvement in helping organise such pillars of western capitalism as
the Bank of England, I.C.I. Shell and Dunlop, their conception of
what constitutes efficient management and the political con-
servatism of their staff. Mckinsey have for instance, been severely
critisised in Britain and America for their ‘known distaste for any
kind of committee work and (their) tendency to see individuals as
little more than statistics in a balance sheet'3* It is pertinent to ask,
therefore, how useful they could possibly be in drawing up
systems designed to break down worker alienation and to build up
worker participation in management.

Even more telling is the fact that Mckinsey's staff are judged to
be politically conservative by the very business circle that they
serve — ‘their style of dress is strictly on the conservative side. So
are the politics of Mckinsey consultants, most of them in their
early 30’s, many with business school degrees and all frighteningly
intelligent. The company could never conceive of a super
management whizz-kid with strong left-wing views. . . . It just
could not think of the two going together.’®® But it is not the reac-
tionary politics of Mckinsey staff that worries some elements of
the business community in Britain and America (although it
should be a cause for grave concern in Tanzania); rather it is that

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