This paper describes the conceptual framework of a research methodology developed by the Region II Rehabilitation Research Institute, designed to permit the study of an important set of problems confronting sheltered workshops. The main problem is centered in the issues of work as work and of work as mode of behavior change. It has become apparent in the operation of sheltered workshops that there were at least two subsystems of activity which could be abstracted from the concrete systems of behavior in any workshop. These are the production subsystems, similar to industry, and the rehabilitation subsystem which is new. The orientation of the rehabilitation subsystem is to rehabilitate through channeling and controlling behavior. The paper discusses basic concepts and variables of work behavior such as behavior potential, behavioral activity, and technology. Research is reviewed and research applications are discussed. These applications include possibilities for improved selective placement of clients. After more research, industrial therapy of the type available in sheltered workshops may prove to be the most effective and least costly of the therapeutic techniques used to prepare individuals for reintegration into the fabric of modern industrial life. (Author/KJ)