The United States Internal Revenue Service introduced a multi-million dollar program to automate its operations in the early 1980s. This book describes a multidisciplinary study of the experiences of several thousand users in this program, based primarily on questionnaires, observation and interviews. The case study gives valuable guidance to managers and their consultants involved in planning introduction of new office technology, as well as providing more academic insights into aspects of human behaviour under changing working conditions.

This book develops and applies a new approach to the study of the working group and indeed of productive enterprises more generally. Unlike similar studies, in this volume the human is related back to the technological, and it is the socio-technical system as a whole that is the object of study. The work reported in this book shows how alternative modes of work organization can exist for the same technology, giving the possibility of organizational choice.

The book brings together in a single volume material and issues normally treated separately, such as management studies, organisation theory, personnel management, industrial relations and motivation theory. Traditional topics such as the Hawthorne Experiments, Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are put into perspective, along with ideas about organisational cultures, the labour process and the idea of corporate employment strategies.

This summary of theory and practice is inspired by the belief that cut and dried solutions to management problems are inappropriate and that every set of circumstances requires a unique synthesis of experience and relevant theories. In this book the authors have reviewed the main texts and theories of organization and have added the lessons learned from an unrivalled volume of practical experience, garnered from some 900 consultants working in more than twenty countries.

This textbook provides first-hand, inside accounts of the process of doing research in organizations. It is intended both for students of research methods in sociology and social psychology, and for students of organization studies, organizational behaviour and management. The contributors tackle such problems as: gaining access to organizations, ‘getting on’ in organizations, quantitative and qualitative styles of investigation, the use of historical materials, the effects of resources on the context of research, the part played by political factors in organizational research, the relevance of grounded theory and conducting research within a cross-cultural framework.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to business organisation and administration. Written in a straightforward, readable style this textbook covers all the major aspects of the subject. Starting with the organisational background it goes on to cover the functions of the important departments within the firm, the role of the administrative officer, and other areas of knowledge vital to the smooth running of a business. There are self-assessment questions at the end of each section, past exam questions, study and exam tips and a full index.