ABSTRACT
For most people in most countries World War II produced the greatest upheaval that mankind had ever known. Anyone who said ‘things will never quite be the same again’ was making the understatement of the century; things would never begin to be even approximately the same again. A high proportion of men who had been normally engaged in industry and commerce had found at new type of life in the armed forces, sometimes a very exciting if somewhat brutalized new life, while women were doing almost all the jobs which hitherto had been considered to be a male prerogative. The first management fashion was joint consultation which had its roots pre-war but which burgeoned in the early forties with governmental encouragement. It was still believed that it was possible to treat the work-force as individuals and to consult with them; the blanketing effect of organized labour had not yet sunk in.
