ABSTRACT
A university researcher undertook a research project in a steel plant. He made observations on at least one day every week and daily for some periods over a duration of eighteen months. The plant's function was to transform steel bars and rolling steel by hand-working methods into sheet form for subsequent surface coating with tin. The work organisation involved in rolling the steel bars into sheet was by means of teams of six men. There were around thirty teams of six men each in the plant. Performance of the complete work cycle of rolling operations by a work team was carried out by a sequence of interdependent operations in which each man participated. Status was unevenly distributed among the six work roles, a differential wage-grading system reflecting in large measure the skill and seniority hierarchy. The senior operative was the rollerman. He carried responsibility for the team's overall output. He frequently earned about twice as much as the weekly rate of the most junior team member.
