ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the meaning of broad labour agreements in the local plant. Milo, Fruhling, and Attica supply case materials of local expediencies at all levels of management; and Attica points an instructive case of internal and plant-community compromises involving minority groups. The book deals with the problem of unofficially rewarding implicit contributions to the organization, as distinct from the need to prevent misuse of the firm's materials and services. It discusses controversies over the sphere of operations and authority of industrial staffs. The book describes Milo's formal structure and the theories of industrial organization held by its staffs. These theories and the functions of staffs typify American industry. Grievance records are a clue to the compromises which are analyzed in terms of friendships, economic and production pressures, and fear of punishment by unwillingly involved top level chiefs.
