Men and Their Work

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Of course not all, or even any great proportion, of people are confused unduly by the world of work, either in advance or as they get on into it. The bureaucratic trend has so pen etrated business and industry that more and more people have assurance, at least on paper, of a smooth and well marked march by easy stages from the high-school guidance office to a retirement suitable to one's achievements. Some of the best sociological research of recent years has had to do with the great bureaucratic organizations in which much of the work of our economy is done. One thinks of the fruit ful hypotheses and findings concerning human groups which have emerged from study of what is commonly, though badly, called restriction of production. But the trend towards large organizations and toward the bureaucratizing of careers does not do away with the struggle of the individual to find a place and an identity in the world of work or with the collective efforts of occupations to exert control over the terms of their work with and for others.

Of course not all, or even any great proportion, of people are confused unduly by the world of work, either in advance or as they get on into it. The bureaucratic trend has so pen etrated business and industry that more and more people have assurance, at least on paper, of a smooth and well marked march by easy stages from the high-school guidance office to a retirement suitable to one's achievements. Some of the best sociological research of recent years has had to do with the great bureaucratic organizations in which much of the work of our economy is done. One thinks of the fruit ful hypotheses and findings concerning human groups which have emerged from study of what is commonly, though badly, called restriction of production. But the trend towards large organizations and toward the bureaucratizing of careers does not do away with the struggle of the individual to find a place and an identity in the world of work or with the collective efforts of occupations to exert control over the terms of their work with and for others.