ABSTRACT
Top local management demanded an explanation of the great discrepancies. The Field Work Department, the shop foremen and their clerical groups, as well as the auditing department and both groups of operating executives, each cleared itself logically of all implied malfeasance or collusion. Conferences concerning the change to be made were held by Office representatives with a few top local executives. The arguments used against executives who feared the Office showed the issue to be primarily one of who exercised authority in the plant—local executives or the Office. The adjustment became functional only as personal relationships were built up to interpret and successfully transmute the logical plan to interlock with current elusive involvements. All personal names are fictitious, Swain had attained his present position in his late twenties after only a few years in the plant as a chemist.
