ABSTRACT
Microcomputers and computer terminals are proliferating in the office environment, and the increasing number of robots and flexible manufacturing systems are making the change perceptible on the shop floor. The change in production philosophy and the new ideas on how work should be organized are even more important than the technological change itself, because they have created the need to implement new technologies. The hierarchical structure of mental regulation gives the psychological bases to change the traditional organization of work, which divides work into planning and executing jobs. Turner and Lawrence had a basic hypothesis that every job contained certain technologically determined task attributes which would influence employees' responses. The attributes or characteristics of each job studied, and expressed in the RTA index, were taken as independent variables. In work design the man-machine task division and the allocation of tasks between persons are decided. The objects of change are products, tools, organization, procedures and the whole work environment.
