First edition, the famous ‘Hawthorne study’ of Roethlisberger and Elton Mayo (who provides a preface), carried out on willing employees of the Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne branch, this book being dedicated to those employees. The researchers tested numerous short-term variables such as lighting and short-term incentives such as wage incentives and changes to working hours, but discovered that social factors, such as involvement in decisions, had a more profound effect on the happiness of workers. This was a significant development in management thinking and makes for a fascinating study of working life; carried out with real sympathy and human interest in its subjects, while taking great pleasure in benevolently satirising their lives: ‘The following comment, recorded on the day before … threw some light on why [Operator 4] did not like the thought of long evenings at home [because of shorter working hours!]: “I have to write a letter to my boy friend and tell him I can’t go out with him any more because my mother doesn’t approve of a fellow who isn’t Polish.”’