ABSTRACT
The social system of the plants studied develops three main dimensions: the organizational givens; the formal authority relationships; and the relationships between the different functional and stratified groups. This chapter describes the formal constraints of the organization that come from the interplay between the technological givens and the bureaucratic rules. It analyzes the organizational givens and the formal authority system. Management complains bitterly all over France about the organizational difficulties that are due to seniority rules. Workers complain that "the administration" is stingy and does not care for its own employees. The constraints of technical and organizational origins that bear on the social system of a factory are numerous. The chapter focuses on the most fundamental for the production workers and, indirectly, for the whole social system of the Monopoly. These are the work load, mechanization and the pace of machines, the seniority rules that govern job allocations and the way they are put into practice.
