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Lisl Klein's experience of applying the social sciences in organizations must be unique. Her work is grounded in research but much of her professional activity has been in application, combining the methods and findings of research with an understanding of dynamics in working with organizations. Moving between research and practice she has, for nearly forty years, pursued the aim of rendering the social sciences useful and practical in organizational life.

Lisl Klein has spent forty years working on the twin themes of the practice of social science in organizations and the importance of work and work organization. Papers on the first of these were published as Working Across the Gap. This volume brings together papers covering the second theme, the meaning and organization of work.

Joan Woodward (1916–71) introduced the teaching of industrial sociology at Imperial College. Her best-known study, comparing organizations on the basis of their production technologies, was followed by research on the behavioural consequences of management control systems. Together they laid a major foundation stone for the contingency approach to organization. Although not explicitly concerned with application, the contingency approach makes possible analysis and some degree of prediction about organization. For applied work, three further conditions are necessary, that come from the arena of dynamics rather than research: internalizing a finding and turning it into use; starting from where the other is; and creating some transitional space. Whether an outcome is regarded as ‘common sense’ has to do with experience of a situation before it is researched, familiarity with findings afterwards, and the kind of language used. The capacity to think institutionally shifts these boundaries: with it, more things become accessible as common sense that without it would be split-off ‘science’, needing to be re-integrated.

Joan Woodward (1916-71) introduced the teaching of industrial sociology at Imperial College. Her best-known study, comparing organizations on the basis of their production technologies, was followed by research on the behavioural consequences of management control systems. Together they laid a major foundation stone for the contingency approach to organization. Although not explicitly concerned with application, the contingency approach makes possible analysis and some degree of prediction about organization. For applied work, three further conditions are necessary, that come from the arena of dynamics rather than research: internalizing a finding and turning it into use; starting from where the other is; and creating some transitional space. Whether an outcome is regarded as 'common sense' has to do with experience of a situation before it is researched, familiarity with findings afterwards, and the kind of language used. The capacity to think institutionally shifts these boundaries: with it, more things become accessible as common sense that without it would be split-off 'science', needing to be re-integrated. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

To understand what goes on in the social sciences, you need to look at where the funding is coming from. The 1950s were the time of the Marshall Plan. As part of the Marshall Plan, under the so-called Conditional Aid Scheme, funds were made available for industrial social research, and there began the first major broad-based program of industrial social science in this country. The essential feature of the scheme was that the problems being tackled should have some bearing on productivity and that the research carried out should produce practical results.

This chapter is concerned with turning transitional thinking into practice, and it describes three experiences of transitional systems or roles. The first was devised by members of a client system, without any overt contribution from the external consultant who was working in the organization at the time. In the second, the consultant spontaneously began to take on the role of a product and, in doing so, loosened the log-jam of a design discussion that had become stuck. The third, by contrast, was a highly structured and formal experimental design. In the design and implementation of technology, there are many forms of simulation, prototyping, and piloting that may be used. But for these to have the function of facilitating transition, certain conditions have to be met. In the design and implementation of technology, there are many forms of simulation, prototyping, and piloting that may be used.

Trebor Sharp was a family firm, manufacturing sweets and confectionery. When the company decided that a new factory was needed, they wanted to achieve two things: a building that would not be just another factory, but something rather special that would stand the test of time and make a distinctive contribution to the built environment. While the author had experience of working on job design problems, she had never before done this at the factory design stage where the operators concerned do not exist yet and their experience and contribution are not available. The author had misgivings about that kind of orientation, because of the fascination it can engender in people to the exclusion of other things; but the opportunity was unique. At a meeting she worked with the project group to list job design criteria, discussing priorities among them and relating them to production criteria.

This chapter presents an involvement in a project about the design of advanced manufacturing technology. Karl Marx's original analysis of the societal consequences of trends in manufacturing technology contained much of what a present-day social scientist would call sociotechnical understanding; that, understands of the interplay between human and technical aspects of technology. With increasing frequency, social scientists were invited to take part in the conferences of engineering institutions. Once engineers and social scientists are working together, many of the issues that have been discussed often emerge operationally as problems of phasing. The engineers approached the \"human-centred design\" task specifically from a wish to counter the effect of Taylorism, with which they were familiar. As a group of professions, engineers have, of course, been evolving their methods and developing their products for much longer than social scientists. The design of transitional systems such as prototyping, simulation, and the systematic testing of alternatives may be a particularly fruitful area for collaboration.

This chapter shows that there were significant work organization issues. While there were some fulfilling jobs in the office, there were also unsatisfactory ones, and stresses and problems in the work organization. There were commonalities in the work organization of the branches. In every branch there were workstations where cashiers managed tills and were the first point of contact for customers. Also in every branch, at the \"back of the office\", was the \"machine room\". At this stage in the application of computing to branch banking, customer accounts were held in large computer centres, but only a few online terminals, located in the machine room, provided continuous access to these accounts. A study of branch banking was commissioned, and a team of five researchers spent a week in each of four branches—one in central London, one in a London suburb, one in a provincial city, and one in a small country town.