Workshop Behaviour [written in 1957]

This chapter discusses the problem of handling the relationship between behaviour observed in industrial workshops and events which happen outside. The behaviour of management, faced with high labour turnover and an ageing labour force, was inexplicable unless one took into account factors operating in the market for the product and unless one examined the history and traditions of the industry. In the workshop at Dee Garment Company about 60 people were engaged, some full-time, some part-time, on the assembly of garments of many different styles and cloths. Garments passed back and forth between assembler and machiner several times during making up. There was a fairly well defined informal group structure, particularly among assemblers. Absence of a machiner often caused overloading of other machiners with work, and breakdowns in the productive units. The grouping of workers was thus associated with their positions in different social systems external to the workshop.