ABSTRACT
This research programme has been concerned with the interaction of technological and socio-psychological factors in industrial production systems—represented by a variety of mining methods at differing levels of mechanization under low seam conditions. There were three main systems: traditional single place working; longwalls in which coal was cut or hewed and hand-filled on to conveyors; and longwalls at higher levels of mechanization. On the longwalls two radically different forms of work group organization were studied—the conventional and the composite. The research design involved the intensive case study, both qualitative and quantitative, over an extended period of time, of the structure and functioning of the social system associated with at least one example of each of the main mining methods, together with two or more subsidiary studies.
