Joan Greenbaum talks about it in her book _In the Name of Efficiency_, I think Philip Kraft does in _Programmers and Managers_, and in any case, the biblios are full of references.
I remember reading a holocaust memoir on internalization, I don't recall the author but he used his experience as his thesis for a degree in psychoanalysis I think it was. He talked about how Jewish prisoners adopted mean practices imposed upon them by the guards, as if the practices were their own standards. I remember particularly the "square meal". The prisoners were allowed only a spoon to eat their gruel, and the guards, for no other reason than sadism, forced the prisoners to raise the spoon straight up from the bowl, then move the spoon at right angles to the mouth. Punishment was swift and harsh for failing.
The prisoners soon took pride in performing the square meal. The author said that long after the particular sadists left, the prisoners continued the square meal even though there was no reason to any more.
I have my own experiences with internalization in boot camp. But I'm not a trained observer. I believe internalization is a quite human and natural response to superior force.
Doug asked some time ago why folks believe things contrary to their best interest, and I think he was referring to the internalization (and rationalization) of many people. I think the answer is, that adopting the imposed standards as one's own *is* rational. That is, it *is* in our best interest in the particular situation for what we know, for what we think we can do.
John K. Taber