National Institute of Industrial Psychology

Abstract

THE annual conference of the National Institute of Industrial Psychology was held in Buxton during April 9–12, and a report has now been issued ("Psychology at Work", 1, No. 3 ; July 1948). Welcoming the delegates to the Conference, the chairman of the Institute, General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, stated that everywhere in industry management is facing the fact that output must be raised if Britain is to retain its standard of life; but the re-equipping of industry is going to take a long time and some means must be found of achieving the goal more quickly. It has now been generally realized that this increase in output can be achieved if greater attention is paid to human relationships; but there has been too little research into this problem. The aim of the Conference was to discuss some of the fundamental issues of human relationships, and its purpose can be summed up in three questions: (1) How much knowledge on the subject exists? (2) Is the knowledge readily available and is it being utilized? (3) What research can be undertaken?