Lecture The evolution of management thought (6th edition) - Chapter 17: Human relations in concept and practice

The Hawthorne Studies advanced the idea of improving human relations in organizations. Accepted findings of Hawthorne: Human relations is a toll for understanding organization behavior, not an end in itself. Trust is crucial in building interpersonal relationships to bind the needs of people and organizations.

THE EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT

THOUGHT, 6TH

EDITION

Electronic Resource by:

Regina Greenwood and Julia Teahen

Human Relations in Concept and Practice

Chapter Seventeen

Impact of Human Relations on

Teaching and Practice

Teachings::

Industry (the Chicago group) with Burleigh Gardner, William Whyte, Lloyd Warner, and David Moore

 The Tavistock Institute (London) influenced by Lewin

Barnard and vice versa

 Center for Group Dynamics of Kurt Lewin, later moved to the University of Michigan

as Likert’s Institute for Social Research

Impact of Human Relations on Teaching and Practice

and Human

Relations:

 Critics, such as

Mary B Gilson,

suggested human

relations had an

anti-labor bias

 The

National Labor Relations Act of 1935

was followed by

a spurt in union

membership

Compare the data regarding causes of work stoppages in the 1920s with the causes following passage of the National Labor Relations Act.

Impact of Human Relations on Teaching and Practice

"Police battle with striking truck drivers," Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1934; Franklin D Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=67#

Impact of Human Relations on

Teaching and Practice

 Feelings,

sentiments, and

collaboration

became the

theme in contrast

to scientific

investigation

 This is the major

difference

between the

human relations

era and

organizational

http://www.uaw.org/solidarity/03/0103/pics/fea0

7-1.jpg

Hawthorne Studies

Revisited

identified four separate areas of criticism:

 The Mayoists’

view of society as one characterized

by anomie, social disorganization, and conflict

The Relay Assembly Test Room

Hawthorne Studies

Revisited

of the worker and management’s

“willingness to manipulate workers for

management’s ends”

 Their failure to recognize other

alternatives for accommodating industrial conflict, such as collective bargaining

 Their specific failure to take unions into account as a method of building social

solidarity

Premises of an Industrial

Civilization

Mayorists saw themselves as “social

engineers” and assumed that happy

workers were productive ones (“cow

sociology”).

according to Bell, did not address the

underlying problems in industry but only intended to make people “feel better” about their situation.

supervision replacing efforts to improve work itself.

Premises of an Industrial

Civilization

human relations would become the goal rather than the means for furthering

attainment of organizational objectives.

human relations assumptions did so on these bases:

 That cooperation and collaboration

overlooked other, more complex, issues

Research Methods and

Results

 Alex Carey noted that

the measurement

had changed in

reporting the results

of comparing the

Mica Splitters with

the second Relay

Assembly group In so

doing, the

researchers

concluded that

supervision, not

incentives, led to the

increases and Carey

says this is an

erroneous conclusion.

Mica Splitting Test at Hawthorne

Research Methods and

Results

“friendly supervision.” Output did not increase until two operatives were

replaced with more “cooperative” ones.

neither supervision nor incentives but discipline, the economic hard times, and relief from fatigue that led to increased productivity Recall that Clair Turner

rejected this latter point as a cause.

Research Methods and

Results

treated the Relay Assemblers as one

group when in fact there was the

original group and the change of

operatives that created a second group

He agreed with Schlaifer that the

“passage of time” explained most of the increased output.

that it took a while for the group to

coalesce and for trust to be built with the observer-supervisor, is also

supported by the recollections of the

participants.

Research Methods and

Results

 A final criticism rests with the

“Science versus Advocacy”

problem

issue is that Mayo selectively

perceived the data

to fit his social philosophy

Elton Mayo

Research Methods and Results

 This weighs heavily

against Mayo and is

one of the reasons the

Hawthorne Studies

have created so much

fuss

 Richard Trahair, in The 

Humanist Temper, an

excellent biography of

Mayo, and Richard

Gillespie, in a thorough

study, also stress

Mayo’s errors as an

advocate and not a

scientist Gillespie

claims that Mayo

“manufactured” the

Hawthorne findings.

Research Methods and

Results

 Finally, economic incentives were played down as a contributing factor as the Hawthorne Study proceeded and as the years passed

 Yet the data and the recollections of the participants suggest that money was

indeed a contributing factor.

Hawthorne Study participants decades

later: Left to right: Theresa Layman, Don

Chipman, Mary Volango, and Wanda

Blazejak.

of improving human relations in

organizations

 Human relations is a toll for understanding organization behavior, not an end in itself.

 Trust is crucial in building interpersonal

relationships to bind the needs of people and organizations.

 Financial incentives are important but not the only incentives.

 Selecting facts to fit preconceived ideas

should be avoided.