ABSTRACT
A researcher from the University of Manchester carried out an eighteen-month research study of the behaviour of the men employed in a particular workshop within the Lanx factory. The Lanx factory was a mass production engineering plant in the north country area of England. The factory formed part of a medium-sized manufacturing organisation, and was one of a large group of companies operating in a buoyant market. The researcher's initial contact with the factory was as an unpaid hand, working on the casting of molten metal by the hand process. His participation in this work lasted for six weeks. As a result of this preparatory observation the researcher decided to concentrate his attention on the men operating casting machines, who were located over a gangway from the hand-working operatives.
