FAMILY STATUS AND BEHAVIOUR AT WORK.

The research findings presented in this paper are drawn from some of the early results of a project undertaken in the Centre for Business Research at Manchester University, England. The project seeks to explain earnings movements of workers in industrial and commercial organizations with reference to the social, economic and technical systems within which they are operating. After a thorough examination of previous research on the subject, a theoretical model was developed. This model contained variables of different types. Although the scope of the model seemed vast it was considered that only by taking all these variables into account could a reasonable explanation of movements in earnings and social behavior related to the wage payment system be achieved. This paper is concerned with one of the darker corners of the model; that is, with the mutual dependency between roles and statuses at work and those in the family and local community. More particularly it deals with the transitional period between leaving school and getting married of broadly working class young women.