ABSTRACT
Recent decades have witnessed a growing concern with the consequences of the routine, repetitive and bureaucratically organised work which characterises so much of employment in a modern industrial society. With changing social and political values and an increasing awareness of the range of possibilities available, it is now realised that a great deal of modern work, whether in the factory or the office, offers little scope for exercising individual initiative and responsibility. People working on these jobs often see their tasks as boring and meaningless; and the effects of this view are now seen as extending far beyond the confines of the individual mind or even of the undertaking which provides employment. The nature of work can and does have wide-ranging implications for the effectiveness of the individual, the enterprise as a whole and the quality of life in society at large.
