Ensayo

WE SHALL now attempt to state more systematically than was possible in a chronological account the
results of the research and some of their implications for practice. Each stage of the researchcontributed to
the development of a point of view in terms of which the data could be more usefully assessed. In
presenting the studies, this aspect of the research program was given primary emphasisand an effort was
made to show how each successive step in the research resulted in the discovery of new facts which in turn
brought forth new questions and new hypotheses and assisted in thedevelopment of more adequate methods
and a more adequate conceptual scheme. The point of view which gradually emerged from these studies is
one from which an industrial organization is regarded as a socialsystem. In this chapter a statement of this
point of view will be made. In the next chapter various management problems which have been discussed in
connection with the various research studieswill be restated in terms of this new point of view. In the
concluding chapter the application of the concept of an industrial concern as a social system to problems of
personnel practice will beconsidered.
The study of the bank wiremen showed that their behavior at work could not be understood without
considering the informal organization of the group and the relation of this informalorganization to the total
social organization of the company. The work activities of this group, together with their satisfactions and
dissatisfactions, had to be viewed as manifestations of a complexpattern of interrelations. In short, the work
situation of the bank wiring group had to be treated as a social system; moreover, the industrial organization
of which this group was a part also had to betreated as a social system.
By “system” is meant something which must be considered as a whole because each part bears a relation
of interdependence to every other part.1 It will be the purpose of...