This book is an interdisciplinary analysis of big organizations and their influence upon the individuals who work in them. Conceptually, the analysis operates at three distinct but interrelated levels: society as a whole; the big, rational organization; and the individual. Organizations are defined as "miniature societies" in which the dominant values of society are inculcated and sought in a more structured, spatially restricted context. A major object is to show how individuals work out an accommodation in this milieu, and to develop a theory of organizational behavior that posits three ideal types of accommodation to big organizations: "upward-mobiles," "indifferents," and "ambivalents."