On the Shop Floor

On the Shop Floor: Two Studies of Workshop Organization and Output is an empirical study of the social factors influencing output in factories. The book investigates the correlation between worker social behavior and production output levels. The text presents a firsthand account of the social behavior of workers in two separate and unrelated workshops. Technological and administrative controls, social structure, and resolution of conflicts in the workshops are analyzed. The book also considers output performance of individual workers involving case studies of factors influencing performance. The general conclusion provides hypotheses to explain the differences in behavior between the two workshops. Managers, human resource practitioners, sociologists, industrial engineers, researchers, and business students will find the book invaluable.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

Chapter 1 The Problem

Chapter 2 The Workshop at the Wye Garment Company

Chapter 3 Norms, Expectations, Output and Earnings

Chapter 4 "Sociable" Groupings in Workroom X

Chapter 5 Conflict and Co-operation

Chapter 6 Conclusion (Wye Garments Case Study)

Chapter 7 Jay's Electrical Components. The Industry and the Firm

Chapter 8 People and Production in the Small Transformer Section

Chapter 9 The Method of Wage Payment at Jay's

Chapter 10 Norms, Expectations and Performance

Chapter 11 Output and Earnings

Chapter 12 Conclusion (Jay's Case Study)

Chapter 13 General Conclusion

Appendix 1

References

Subject Index