Meaning of Work

Lisl Klein Ph.D. worked in industry, on the shop floor and in personnel management, before moving into organization research. From 1965 to 1970 she was Social Sciences Adviser in Esso Petroleum Company Ltd and, from 1971 to 1989, senior social scientist in the Tavistock Institute. She founded the Bayswater Institute in 1990. Lisl passed away peacefully in December 2015.

• Preface -- Introduction: the context -- Making the Case -- The function of work in human life -- The meaning of work -- Luddism for the twenty-first century -- Research Studies -- The human implications of rationalizing work -- Living and working in hospital wards. Using electronic patient records -- Consulting and Action Research -- The “Humanization of Work” programme in Germany: some cultural influences in the design and re-design of work -- A contribution to the design of a new confectionery factory -- Work organization in the design of a new canning plant: plant design, job design, and industrial relations -- Work organization in branch banking -- Putting information and communications technology to work in the construction industry: testing a model -- The Boundaries with Other Professions -- The production engineer's role in industrial relations -- "Satisfactions in work design": some problems of theory and method -- The management of innovation: from platitudes to reality in job design -- On the collaboration between social scientists and engineers -- and Finally . . . -- And finally—some reflections on institutions and policy -- Checklist for implementation issues

'To say that Lisl Klein has been active and influential as a consultant in industry for nearly fifty years is an understatement. She has, in her own words in "Working Across the Gap", had a 'life-long love affair with industry' and other kinds of organizations and she has had a "life-long fascination, not to say obsession, with the question of work satisfaction". This collection spans all her working years and gives a comprehensive picture of a remarkable career as a researcher and consultant as well as insights and criticisms of great value.'- Stefan Jern, Department of Psychology, Lund University'A very fine narrative that keeps the reader informed, educated and entertained. [This book offers] a prodigious range of insights of the interaction of theory and practice. The author has collected together numerous of her earlier publications and revisited them; reinterpreted, d and to a degree, integrated them. This is made up of case studies, vignettes, autobiographical sections, theorizing and reflections that somehow combine into a very cohesive and compelling whole.'The same virtues of uncompromising objectivity, critical imagination, sharp intelligence and engrossing storytelling that characterized Klein's earlier work [are found] in her latest. As a chronicle of changing relations between industry and academia, this book is hard to beat.'- Yiannis Gabriel, The School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London'Social science would be healthier today if there were more Lisl Kleins'- William Brown, Work, Employment & Society