Men and machines

SEVERAL YEARS OF observation, extensive reading and a limited field survey have gone into the making of this work which is a sociological study of factories and the people who run them.
After a brief survey of the development of academic concern for the industrial worker, Dr. Pillai, in this persuasive study, proceeds to examine human inter action patterns in the work-place, the influence of supervisory methods on work satisfaction, the role of material and non material rewards and similar other issues that are relevant in an analysis of the relation between the human and technical organization in a modern work-place. The author also presents some interesting material on the conditions of living and the pattern of thinking among his respondents. In the final chapter there is a brief discussion on the prospect of change in the social system of the factory.
Every phase of discussion is profuse with relevant references from other studies. The reader at an advanced level will thus find himself placed in the midst of a wealth of material which he may pursue with interest.
Also, by drawing material from diverse sources and carefully fusing them with the main stream of analysis, the subject matter is placed in such a perspective that the reader can derive his own conclusions and work out fresh avenues of thought.