Case Study

Case
Study

LongWall Mining

Description

In the years immediately after the Second World War, researchers at the Tavistock Institute carried out a number of studies of work organization, including a classic study of deep-seam coal mining. They found two very different forms of organization, which they labelled "conventional" and "composite", both operated within the same seam and using identical technology.

The conventional system combines a complex formal structure with simple work roles. The miner is committed to a single part-task, enters into a limited number of unvarying social relations, and has no sense of loyalty or responsibility outside his particular task group. The composite system combines a simple formal structure with complex work roles. The miner has a commitment to the whole group task, and consequently finds himself drawn into a variety of tasks in co-operation with different members of the total group.

	Conventional system	Composite system
Number of men	41	41
Number of segregated task groups	14	1
Mean job variation for members:
task groups worked with	1.0	5.5
main tasks worked	1.0	3.6
different shifts worked	2.0	2.9
Productive achievement	78	95
Ancillary work at face (hours per man-shift)	1.32	0.03
Average reinforcement of labour	6	0
Shifts with cycle lag	69%	5%
Consecutive weeks without losing a cycle	12	65
Absenteeism
without reason	4.3%	0.4%
sickness or other	8.9%	4.6%
accidents	6.8%	3.2%
total	20.0%	8.2%

Questions

What theories of management and organization are illustrated by these data? What are the possible consequences for management action?

	The original research is described in a number of papers by Eric Trist, Ken Bamforth, Fred Emery, and others.
	E. Coakes, R. Lloyd-Jones & D. Willis, The New Sociotech: Graffiti on the Longwall (Springer, 2000). http://users.wmin.ac.uk/~coakese/graffiti_on_the_long_wall.htm users.wmin.ac.uk/~coakese/knowledge/or42.htm
	Barry Palmer, "The Tavistock paradigm: Inside, outside and beyond.", in R. Hinshelwood & M. Chiesa (eds) Institutions, Anxieties and Defence. PDF version available online
	Civic Practices Network (http://www.cpn.org/cpn/sections/topics/work/stories-studies/tavistock_institute.html) Bob Cole's notes (www.isc.anglia.ac.uk/coleb/wio/html/tavistoc.htm)

Source

Prepared by Richard Veryard. February 2002.

veryard projects - innovation for demanding change

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