This is a slim volume containing the detailed results of the authors’ research into managerial approaches for motivating maintenance personnel. A survey was answered by 500 employees at different firms, and was followed up by 104 interviews.

Chapters 1 and 2 consist of background material on maintenance and motivational problems. Chapter 3 outlines the authors’ research methodology, and Chapter 4 offers a “management-level” overview of the research results. Chapter 5, the longest of the monograph, provides 14 actual case studies in the application of various motivational methods with the goal of increasing staff productivity. The last two chapters of the report attempt to portray a more detailed summary of the results.

The book does not attempt quantitative measurement of programmer maintenance activity. Its value lies in its attempts to link managerial theory (employee motivation and job perception) with the programming task. This is accomplished particularly well by the presentation of case studies in Chapter 5. The case studies seem to have been carefully chosen in order to present a wide spectrum of managerial problems. Each study follows a common format, which includes some idea of the results of applying each chosen resolution to the case problem. Cases include “changing the negative image about maintenance,” “rape and pillage of the maintenance team,” and “farming out maintenance.” Each is well worth reading.

While the book is a useful addition to research on programmer motivation, there are some minor shortcomings. Instead of having been typeset, the monograph appears to have been reproduced from word processor output, and it contains many pages filled by overly large (and not always useful) graphs. More significantly, the “Couger-Zawacki Diagnostic” instrument used as the basis for the entire study is not reproduced. On the other hand, the on-site interview questionnaire is printed. Managers of maintenance programming personnel should find this monograph of interest.