Some years ago the Western Electric Company began a series of experiments that have laid the foundations for orderly research into the motives and activities of men and women employed in industry. Starting with the notion that management should know more about its human material, in the sense that it knows about its materials of construction, the responsible executives quickly perceived that people are far more sensitive than are materials of construction to their wider environment, and that the relation between a man and his environment is extremely complex. They came to the conclusion that men and women must be examined under conditions which are sufficiently typical of their daily experience, and yet which permit of an orderly investigation not restricted by the necessity of finding an immediate solution to a practical question. These researches, therefore, represent the development of a new attitude on the part of industrialists towards their human problems. The results, as here set down by Professor Whitehead, are of immediate importance to all executives and no less so to the large number of people interested in human behavior. The first volume describes in great detail the beginning and purpose of the investigation, the methods of analysis, and the results deduced from the data in hand. The second volume consists of a series of charts presenting statistical findings which accompany the text in the first volume. These two volumes constitute a distinctly novel approach to the understanding of human beings in their relations to one another, and particularly in work situations.

Routine, custom, and habitual associations have always been considered the necessary foundation for human initiative and for the effective experience of individual adventure. The rise of modern technology, however, has resulted in a new type of progressive society, which may or may not provide the stability needed for human satisfaction. This is the question to which Professor Whitehead has here addressed himself. His book is written for those who seek a solution in intelligent evolution based on a faithful analysis of the observable facts, rather than in some radical departure from accustomed procedure. Recognizing that the problem centers itself somewhere in the activities of business and industry, he makes a brilliant analysis of present-day industrial civilization and reaches conclusions that will cut through the fog of wishful sentiment that invalidates most writing on this vital subject.