Warwick's School of Industrial and Business Studies (SIBS) was founded in 1967, with Brian Houlden as Chair, a total of five academic staff and 24 students across three programmes (MSc Management & Business Studies, MSc Management Science & Operational Research, Doctoral programme). It quickly gained a reputation for excellent research, particularly in the field of industrial relations. The Industrial Relations Research Unit, founded by Hugh Clegg in 1970 focused on achieving a better understanding of workplace industrial relations in general and workplace trade unionism in particular, in a time when the UK was perceived to suffer greatly from industrial strife and poor economic performance.