ABSTRACT
Industrial organisations dominate industrial societies. They are, indeed, one of the most distinctive features of such societies. Though large-scale industrial organisations did not figure to any great extent in the earliest stages of industrialisation in Europe and the United States of America, their importance was apparent well before the end of the nineteenth century; and during the present century their influence has become increasingly pervasive. Many small enterprises still exist, of course, but for most people in societies like our own paid work means employment as one of hundreds or thousands of others in a large industrial corporation, or - for a considerable minority - in an equally large or larger public sector organisation. For industrialisation and the urbanisation which accompanied it have seen not only the domination of the economy by large industrial and commercial organisations, but also the parallel growth of central and local government, and the development of organisations to provide mass education, mass communications, mass leisure and mass representation, all employing large numbers of people.
