AN ANALYSIS of the social environment is difficult indeed; it is not something that affects other people in other places only: it is operating right here at this moment. Those factors that affect its operation are in operation here too. Thus, for example, when I tell you that belief in the virtue of logic is itself a nonlogical belief rather unique to western civilizations and that, even so, people including engineers are seldom if ever motivated by the sheer logic of the situation, some of you will reject this out of hand. You will reject this assertion because your social environment has rewarded you for appearing to be logical, and for believing in the innate virtue of logic. Or another example: for many of the statements I will make, some of you will say, "of course, that's just common sense; I don't need a social psychologist to tell me that." At the same time, others of you will be thinking, "Just like these psychologists, to read something into a situation that obviously isn't there." So you can see what you and I are up against. Well, what do we do about this situation? As a social psychologist, I know that there is very little we can do about it in only an hour. I will count myself very successful indeed if I can leave with you a state of mind-a sensitivity to the social environment if you are presently unaware of it, and hopefully an increased sophistication about its operation and implications for those of you who have dwelled on these matters before. With these remarks in mind let us turn to the matter at hand: the social environment and its implications where the role of humans is important for operations research and the related techniques of systems analysis and human engineering. And let us set the stage for the problem by taking a quick look at a situation much in keeping with the subjects of lectures to which you have been exposed elsewhere. Some years ago the Western Electric Company conducted a series of experiments aimed at experimentally varying certain environmental factors in an effort to learn how to increase productivity. Being good engineers and scientists, they selected comparable teams of workers, separated them,