Interrelationship Between Management Functions

HUMAN RELATION MOVEMENT: ELTON MAYO

Elton Mayo is generally recognized as the father of Human Relation School. It was he who led the team conducting the study at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Plant (1927-1932) to evaluate the attitudes and psychological reactions of workers in on-the-job situations. His associates included John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, F.J. Roethlisberger and W.J. Dickson. Elton Mayo and his associates came to the following conclusions:

1. An organization is not only a techno-economic system but also a psycho-social system.
2. Physical conditions of work exercise some influence on workers’ morale and productivity. But a far greater influence is exercised some their-personal relations, attitudes of the supervisor and other social and psychological factors.
3. Workers spontaneously form small informal group. The norms and values of such groups exercise significant influence on the behavior and performance of workers.
4. Generally workers act or react not as individuals but as members of a group.
5. Informal leaders play an important role in setting and enforcing group norms.
6. Workers are not mere economic beings motivated by money alone. They respond to the total work situation including work design, recognition, participation, etc.

The Hawthorne Experiments proved a landmark in the evolution of management thought. They gave birth to the human relations movement. They gave fillip to a large number of studies on the human aspects of management. Many organization initiated measures to improve relations with workers. Management was supposed to assume a new role and to develop new concepts of authority, motivation and leadership. New sub-disciplines like industrial psychology, industrial sociology, social psychology and group dynamics emerged.

Mayo’s work was a ‘turning point’ in the development of management thought. It led to a new way of looking men at work. His work challenged the basic postulates of the classical approach. His studies revealed the overwhelming significance of human and social factors in industry. He is rightly called the father of the relations approach.