Improvement in the Lower Foundry

Abstract

The patterns of behaviour in the Lower Foundry and the problems perceived by management to exist there were not predominantly related to features of the socio-technical system of work at shopfloor level. In the other two departments much that was characteristic in behaviour and much of what were perceived by managers and supervisors to be problems could (in the language of chapter 8) be traced to conflicts that occurred, and interactions that took place, because of the inefficiencies of technical design and mediating mechanisms, and particularly because of the poor match between task constraints on behaviour and the constraints of payment, manning systems and other controls. Sources of difficulty for men working on the plant were by no means absent in the Lower Foundry, but they were already fairly well understood by the foundry manager, who was trying to improve the situation. It was not so necessary to resolve differences in perception between managers and men actually working on the plant. However, the foundry manager was unable to effect some of the improvements he would like to have made because of technical and marketing factors, combined with the operation of controls and of policies laid down outside the foundry.