Introduction

The evolution of the organization of time at work and the way in which it is presently organized can only be understood in the context of the development of the Spirit of Capitalism which has created the chronic search for the most productive form of time-discipline at work. The commodified approach to time has been highlighted as of crucial significance to way much work is organized. The new industrial sociology argues that work organization cannot be adequately explored by looking only at the work-place level and that sociopolitical context of work-place behaviour needs to be examined. An adequate analysis of experience of time and its determinants has to examine the interplay between individual experience, membership of occupational group, the work situation in particular organizations and the context in which the work organization is situated, its environment. This chapter argues for social-anthropological perspective, focusing particularly on the distinction between the two major metaphors used to describe industrial time 'line' and 'cycle'.