Workers' Attitudes and Technology

by Dorothy Wedderburn , Rosemary Crompton

• ISBN13: 9780521097116
• ISBN10: 0521097118
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1972-10-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

First published in 1922, this volume aimed to contribute to our understanding of the complexities which shape attitudes and behaviour at work. Based on material obtained from a survey of workers employed by a single firm - who operate production systems as widely as different as continuous-flow chemical production and yarn spinning - this book highlights features of the production system which are crucial in influencing attitudes and behaviour within the work setting. Through a comparison of craftsmen and semi-skilled workers, it also illustrates the influence of differences of expectations upon work attitudes and behaviour. The authors reject any approach which could be called technologically determinist but nonetheless seek to show that a comparative approach to the study of behaviour in organizations may still fruitfully take as its starting-point technology and the systems of control which are devised for the planning and execution of the task.

Table of Contents

List of tables

Acknowledgements

Technology and the study of organisations

the company and the technology

A comparison of attitudes and behaviour

Work tasks and attitudes

The workers' backgrounds

The environment of the works

The control system and social relationships between supervisor and supervised

Conclusions

Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.