Perceptions of Work: Variations within a Factory

This is a 1972 study of the ways in which workers, both men and women with a whole range of ages and family circumstances, relate and adapt to their work situation. It is set in a single factory so that the aspects of the situation relating to the employer, such as the firm's profitability, size and reputation, are all the same for all the workers. This however still leaves considerable variation in their experience of work. On the one hand this is influence by the work group and conditions relating to the worker's particular job; on the other, it depends on the values and expectations which each worker brings to the work situation. this study examines the relationships of these two influences in determining the workers' different perceptions of work.