The Changing Culture of a Factory

Elliott Jaques

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780415264426
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136430961
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Business

Tavistock Press was established as a co-operative venture between the Tavistock Institute and Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in the 1950s to produce a series of major contributions across the social sciences.
This volume is part of a 2001 reissue of a selection of those important works which have since gone out of print, or are difficult to locate. Published by Routledge, 112 volumes in total are being brought together under the name The International Behavioural and Social Sciences Library: Classics from the Tavistock Press.
Reproduced here in facsimile, this volume was originally published in 1951 and is available individually. The collection is also available in a number of themed mini-sets of between 5 and 13 volumes, or as a complete collection.

PART ONE

BACKGROUND DATA

The purpose of the project, and certain aspects of the methods and approach employed, will be outlined and illustrated by the events of the first three months, when the project got under way. A broad background of the firm is then given by means of a description of its organization in 1948 and a rapid historical sketch showing how this organization grew.

CHAPTER ONE

THE CONCEPTION AND INITIATION OF THE PROJECT

THIS book is a case study of developments in the social life of one industrial community between April, 1948, and November, 1950. It is a progress report, and gives an account of research participation in attempting to deal with the day-today problems experienced by the factory in its efforts to find a more satisfying working life consistent with the demands of a competitive industrial situation. As a case study, the book is not intended to be a statement of precise and definite conclusions. It is written in three sections: the first of these presents introductory, background, and historical material; the second consists of five independent case studies of problems experienced in five separate parts of the factory; the third and final section draws some of the material together, as well as presenting certain limited conclusions arising directly from the case studies.

The factory has a wide reputation for its social policies and is regarded by many as a special case: it has introduced most of the modern methods in progressive management and has made certain innovations which are very much its own. The quality of group relations has steadily improved over the past ten years, and the firm is now accepted generally by its members at all levels as a very satisfactory place in which to work. As regards the changing pattern of social stresses and strains which are experienced, some of these arise from the fact that the advanced development of social relations has thrown up new and unfamiliar problems, but many of the difficulties are similar to those which occur in other communities—whether industrial or educational, family or neighbourhood, urban or rural. Ths capacity of the firm to deal with difficulties, as and when they occur, is one indication of its vitality. Because of this it has been possible to collaborate with the personnel of the factory in exploring, illuminating and recording many of the underlying aspects of these stresses—undercurrents which in ordinary situations are not accessible either to the community or to the research worker, since the level of security is insufficient to allow either their expression or their recognition.

The material presented is a first report of a long-term project, whose purpose is to study some of these less accessible sources of group stress. It is part of a more general programme of research, administered through the Medical Research Council and approved by the Human Factors Panel of the Committee on Industrial Productivity which was set up in 1948 by the Lord President of the Council.¹ The Human Factors Panel was constituted a body composed of nine members—three Government representatives, a delegate from the British Employers’ Confederation, a delegate from the Trades Union Congress, an independent member, and three representatives from independent social science research institutions. The views of the Chairman on industrial relations commanded wide respect among both management and workers in Glacier. The delegate of the Trades Union Congress was the National President of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, one of the main unions in the factory. Sponsorship by a panel with these two particular members, together with the accepted independence of the Medical Research Council, were influences of considerable importance in sanctioning the beginning of the work.

THE OPERATIONAL PLAN OF THE PROJECT

The plan to be followed in this book reflects the operational plan of the project itself, beginning with a general study of the factory and the forces affecting it as a total community, and moving on to more detailed descriptions of events occurring in component sections. Such a plan derives from field theory, which, briefly stated, holds that a particular event may best be understood as the outcome of other interacting events in the larger field in which it occurs; that is to say it is unlikely that notions of simple cause and effect will explain social behaviour. For example, to describe the effects of introducing a piece-rate system or a scheme of joint consultation into a factory, it would be necessary, in terms of this approach, to take into account the setting in which these events occur at the time, such as the general morale situation in the particular factory concerned, the rates of pay, the structure and nature of working groups, and the quality of supervision, and, equally, the larger social forces emanating from the general economic situation, the competitive position of the factory, and the characteristics of the local community. Not that in what follows such a complete background will be presented. But the pattern has been to move, as far as was possible, from the more general to the more specific forces, which can then be seen against the larger setting. Change and development being one of the essential characteristics of every social process, work of this kind is never completed, and the present project remains in this sense unfinished. The research worker must often rest content with the study of limited phases of processes which have gone on before his arrival and which will continue after his departure.

The Complexity of Social Change

Another way in which the plan of the book reflects the growth of the project is that, while the early parts deal with material deriving from a background study initiated by the Research Team, the later portions are concerned with problems brought to the Research Team by various sections of the firm. This shift took place as the Research Team acquired greater acceptability as an independent group with professional status; an extremely important process, which has continued, though at a slow pace and with uneven development, in different parts of the factory.

About each of the problems for which assistance was sought, the Research Team made three assumptions: that the particular problems complained of were unlikely to be the only—or indeed the main—sources of difficulty; that no simple causes, or solutions, would be found; and that although assistance was sought, resistances to change were likely to occur as the real situation was further explored. Such assumptions, while common in some kinds of medical work, are nevertheless not universally accepted as a basis for the study of human behaviour. Frequently, simplified answers are sought—panaceas which will cure a variety of difficulties with a minimum of discomfort—with the research worker too often conforming, or being forced to conform, to the wishes rather than meeting the needs of those presenting urgent demands under the stress of industrial practice. The introduction of piece-rates, or of better personnel management, the use of joint consultation, profit sharing, or of improved works information—the list is long of remedies, which, in spite of their many advantages, have on the whole led to disappointment whenever those concerned have been able and willing to face or able to assess the total effects produced against the time, expense and effort put into what, after all, amount to no more than relatively simple changes of practice or procedure.

There is considerable evidence that social problems, on however small a scale, require for their solution much more than administrative or technical changes which still leave intact the underlying system of values and the familiar attitudes and outlook which form the culture or way of life of the community. The Hawthorne experiment, the Poston study, the Yankee City surveys¹ all bear witness to the need to approach human problems with due deference to the complexity of the factors at work, and for the unique manner in which these factors operate and interweave in any situation at a given point in time. It was assumed in this study that the simplest approach was to accept the complexity of social reality, and the most rational, to accept the irrationality of many of the unrecognized forces which contribute to social behaviour.

The Design of the Project

The design chosen for the project was to collaborate with one firm which would be willing and interested to study and develop its methods for creating satisfactory group relations; it being felt that an advanced firm would provide the most suitable field of study. For such a firm would have already experienced the limited return to be realized from the introduction of merely procedural changes and partial remedies of the types discussed in the previous section. On this account it was likely that such a firm would already be feeling in itself considerable need to confront and understand some of the deeper forces with which the research was concerned. It would tend, therefore, to welcome an approach for collaboration with a technical group engaged on the study of these forces from the point of view of social science matters, and be capable of tolerating the strain and disturbance inevitably associated with research and pioneer developments, especially in a field such as group relations.

It was anticipated that such work with one firm, and that a firm which might in some respects be employing uncommon practices, could produce results of general interest; for however diverse the character of problems of industrial relations may appear on the surface, in many ways these problems will have common underlying features, whatever the industry. If this assumption holds true, a study which contributes to the teasing out and illumination of some of the psychological and social roots of stresses in group relations in one factory, will contribute to the illumination of similar problems elsewhere.

The Glacier Metal Company was approached, both because it was regarded by the Institute as fulfilling many of the general conditions necessary for the projected type of collaborative field study, and because in intermittent working contact with the firm for a period of nearly two years the Institute had found it an organization that provided specially favourable conditions for following out the principle that management, supervision, and workers each should independently agree to collaborate in any work undertaken. On the other hand there were certain difficulties about Glacier which were recognized. It was not fully organized as a union shop, nor was it a member of the Engineering and Allied Employers’ Federation. Both these features were felt in part to arise from the very fact that the factory was experimenting with advanced and novel methods. It presented an uncommon opportunity to investigate how far a firm which had developed social practices of a more advanced character than was yet usual in British industry could nevertheless maintain satisfactory connections with the larger social units of which it forms a part both on the employer and the worker side.

THE FIRST THREE MONTHS

Field study began formally in July, 1948, but the Institute had first approached the firm in April of that year, the intervening three months being taken up with securing from all sections of the factory as full initial agreement to the undertaking of the project as it was possible to obtain. The Managing Director and his immediate subordinates were approached first. The purpose of the project was described and answers given to such questions as were answerable. Although at this stage plans could only be outlined in vague and uncertain terms, he and they agreed to collaborate, in so far as it was possible for them to make any definite commitment themselves in face of the indeterminate nature of the Institute proposals.

This preliminary agreement from management was by no means automatically obtained, and might easily have been withheld had there not been some previous contact with the Institute. On the first of these occasions in 1946 the Managing Director had been most anxious to engage the collaboration of the Institute, despite the fact that his colleagues were opposed to it. The Institute had stated that it refused on principle any request for consultation unless not only the management group as a whole were agreed, but representatives of the workers also; such general agreement being regarded as an essential pre-condition of any technically effective and professionally responsible undertaking in this special line of work. The delay which this caused enabled the Institute to establish a first understanding with the firm of its seriousness over securing general agreement before collaboration could begin. It happened eventually that other members of the senior management group as well as the Managing Director desired the help of the Institute, and it was under these conditions that agreement, including that of supervision and of workers’ representatives, was obtained for the first consultant arrangement undertaken between Glacier and the Institute. When collaboration in the present project was first proposed, several members of the Glacier management, feeling that the Managing Director was already investing too much of his time and interest in social experiments, and anxious lest production be affected adversely by still further involvement of this kind, expressed considerable reservation as to the wisdom of having research of this kind going on in the factory. As against this they showed interest in progressing towards good industrial relations; and this interest, along with the knowledge that the Managing Director was particularly set on having this project carried out in his factory, as well as their experience that the Institute would not take part in a project imposed from above, proved to be forces sufficiently strong to overcome the reservations that they had expressed.

The next step was for the matter to go to the Works Council. Certain members of the management group now became anxious lest the workers’ representatives should turn the whole scheme down in view of a general trade union antipathy towards, and scepticism about, industrial psychologists and psychiatrists. They suggested that the Chairman of the Human Factors Panel should be asked personally to come down to the Works Council meeting, since the high regard in which he was held throughout the factory would lend great weight in securing approval for the project, if he would say that an undertaking of this nature between Glacier and the Institute would be commendable to him. The Institute opposed this suggestion on the grounds that persuasion of this kind would run counter to the principle of getting genuine co-operation from the factory itself—a view which was shared by the Chairman of the Human Factors Panel himself. Accordingly the Institute representative went alone to the meeting of the Works Council scheduled for the end of April, where he was given an opportunity to describe the plan for the project, pointing out that although management had agreed to collaborate, independent agreement would be required also from the workers’ side. To take care of this requirement, the Works Council referred the matter for independent consideration to the Works Committee, a body whose membership was entirely composed of elected representatives of the Glacier workers and whose next meeting took place two weeks later.

The Workers Agree to Collaborate

The Works Committee had twenty-four members; all were elected from their departments; all were trade unionists, and most shop stewards. This first meeting between the Works Committee and the Institute representative lasted five hours, and took place during a f...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Original Copyright Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Introduction
• PART I. BACKGROUND DATA
• PART II. THREE YEARS OF CHANGE
• PART III. ANALYSIS OF CHANGE
• APPENDIX 1. Company Policy
• APPENDIX 11. Factory Standing Order on Policy Governing Executive Behaviour
• REFERENCES
• INDEX