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This case is set in the engineering industry, and deals with the introduction of time study-based incentive schemes into craft-based production work, in a company which has been the subject of a merger - opposed by much of the workforce. The resulting imposition of incentive schemes produced dissension and conflict, culminating in a long drawn out bitter strike. Thus the analysis of the case demonstrates how conflict can arise out of the merger of two firms with radically different cultural systems. To deal with such a situation required an appreciation of the importance of value systems in securing organisational effectiveness. Management lacked such a strategy. Typical problems arising out of the operation of the study-based incentive schemes are also revealed in the case study. Again Alba Steel was unsuccessful in dealing with them. The presence of both local and national bargaining arrangements exacerbated this position.