CHAPTER 13 - GENERAL CONCLUSION

Abstract

This chapter presents a comparison of two case studies, namely, the case study of Wye Garment factory and the case study of Jay's Electrical Components. It explains the absence of a behavioral norm relating to output and earnings in the Wye Garment factory. It also explains the contrast between this situation and the situation in the Jay's plant. The examination of the social structure of the workrooms showed that in each case the workers had formed groups based upon shared experience, common interest, similarity of age, and so on. In the workroom at Wye Garments, these sociable groupings were not, to any significant extent, coextensive with the groupings of workers on the processes. But at Jay's, where the workers had greater freedom to choose their associates, and greater spatial mobility, there was an almost exact correspondence of the sociable and the productive groupings. Nothing resembling the situation described in the Bank Wiring Room Study was observed in both the case studies, where interaction occasioned by work formed the basis for the development of cliques, membership of which was closely related to output.