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Social and Technological Characteristics of Coal-Face Work: A Temporal and Spatial Analysis

Management Centre, University of Bradford, Emm Lane, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD94JL U.K.

This paper offers a re-evaluation of the Tavistock studies of coal mining during the 1950s by analyzing their relevance to the social and technological characteristics of coal-face work before and after the studies. The historical analysis draws upon documentary evidence, while the study of contemporary changes in coal-face work has involved a decade of interviews with miners, mining engineers, managers and union officials, supplemented with underground visits. The specific recommendations of the Tavistock work are shown to have been made redundant by technological change, but their wider relevance is demonstrated both in relation to understanding earlier technological developments and in identifying weaknesses in the present organization of face work. Had the lessons of the Tavistock experiments been incorporated in the design of new technologies of coal production and the organization of face work, more human-centered work could have evolved without sacrificing improvements in productivity.

Key Words: coal face • technology • work organization • human factors

Human Relations, Vol. 47, No. 1, 89-118 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679404700105


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