The Human Relations Movement Of George Elton Mayo

Frederick W. Taylor worked across the United States in the first 15 years of the 20th century looking to solve production problems (Owens & Valesky, 2011, p. 67). He was an engineer in steel manufacturing and studied developed what what is now known as the four principles of scientific management. These principles spell out what both managers and workers are to do. Two important principles include having the management set goals, plan, and supervise workers, and the workers perform the work, and that organizations should establish the standard where management “sets the objectives and the workers cooperate in achieving them” (p. 67). Taylor’s principles are still used today by some organizational leaders who fight the movement that management should work as a team with the workers (pp. 67-68). Taylor’s principles have led to things such as strict discipline, the idea that workers must focus on their task with little or no interaction with colleagues, and the idea of incentive

The history of HRM had its beginnings in the early 1800s in England. In the pre industrial era, the apprentice worked and lived in close proximity with the master craftsman who looked after his needs. During the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, manufacturing underwent a sea change when machines were used in large factories to manufacture goods. Later, in the 19th century, Frederick W. Taylor propounded the theory of scientific management that studied workflows scientifically to improve economic efficiency and significantly improve labor productivity. Taylor recommended that the combination of scientific management and industrial psychology of workers. Taylor proposed that workers should be managed not only for

Behavioral Management Theory is the understanding and response of employee needs to enforce motivation. This theory guides management in a better understanding of the human aspect. It involves management to treat employees as important resources in the workforce. The goal is to raise productivity and to do this by motivating employees. Motivating employees can involve incentives like employee bonuses, promotions, and the collection and redeeming of points for rewards. As the management takes interest in employees, it makes them feel like an important part of the puzzle, and in turn motivates employees to work harder. Like in most cases, if the employees are satisfied and working conditions are good, productivity raises automatically. A theorist by the name of Mayo Hawthorne devised an experiment that allowed a group of telephone line workers to be separated and observed in a private room. The controlled group of employees increased greatly in productivity. This brought the human relations movement that involved management spending time, showing interest, and rewarding employees to increase productivity. Employees felt management was

Elton Mayo- is considered the pioneer of the human relations approach to improve levels of productivity and satisfaction. This approach was first highlighted by the improvements known as Hawthrone Experiments. The Hawthorne studies centered on how workers reacted to actions of management, how variations in physical working conditions affected output, and how social interactions among workers affected job performance (Milakovich and Gordon, 2013). A number of experiments were conducted on the workers to find out the impact of different situations on their efficiency. Mayo advocated for the understanding of personnel problems in the context of growth of science and technology. He wanted the management to understand the problems of workers and make efforts to compensation them. As such, the Mayo’s research established the human relations school of organization theory, which stressed the social and

Scientific management evolved into Fordism, which was established by the American entrepreneur Henry Ford. It basically involved mass production and an assembly line. Workers were attracted and motivated by higher wages, paid daily, which resulted in reduced staff turnover and productivity increase. Scientific management had many disadvantages, especially for the worker. Workers felt socially isolated, the work was exhausting, monotonous and stressful. As a result, in the 1930s, a movement, opposing Scientific management was created- the Human Relations movement. It emphasized on the cooperation of workers by treating them humanely and shifted the emphasis from utilitarian to normative control. Yet, it developed from Scientific management's principles. Post Tayloristic ideas influenced modern HRM, which unlike Taylorism, emphasizes on the commitment and individuality of

The year 1911 saw Frederick Winslow Taylor publish a book titled ‘The principles of scientific management’ in which he aimed to prove that the scientific method could be used in producing profits for an organization through the improvement of an employee’s efficiency. During that decade, management practice was focused on initiative and incentives which gave autonomy to the workman. He thus argued that one half of the problem was up to management, and both the worker and manager needed to cooperate in order to produce the greatest prosperity.

Mayo was one of the first to think about individual behavior and how it integrates with group processes. Mayo's human relations approach says; a happy worker is an efficient worker; that means if an organization can keep its workforce happy, it would bring more productivity and more profit because if a worker is happy what the organization provides. Elton Mayo for the first time brought out the importance of relationships between social factors and productivity. Before his studies, the productivity of the employees was considered to be a function only of physical conditions of work and money wages paid to them. Simon, on the other hand, was a further departure from the classical approach to Public Administration. Although Simon was noted to having some similar views to some of the theorists before him but according to Fry and Raadschelders (2014),"truly distinctive feature of Simons work lies in his preoccupation with decision making in the organization" (P281). His work known as "satisficing" was that Simon maintained that individuals do not seek to maximize their benefit from a particular course of action (Guru, 2009). Simon contended that individuals were limited in their ability to assess all information that would be needed in order to maximize their benefit. Bounded by cognitive limits. Hence people seek something which is good

Scientific Management Theory by Frederick W. Taylor – Throughout the industrial world employees are the large part of the organisation and Fundamental interests of employees are necessarily aggressive. So as a manager it is necessary to arrange mutual relations with employees so their interests become identical. In case of any single individual the greatest prosperity can exist only when that individual has reached his highest state of efficiency and that is, when he is turning out his largest daily output (Frederick Winslow Taylor, 2007).

There are a number of management theories that have changed the management business environment in the twentieth century. The theories have assisted managers to come up with better ways of management and organization of people. Managers have been able to increase profits, reduce costs and maximize efficiency. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the contributions of scientific management and the human relations movement to the modern management. This essay will use Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theory on scientific management and Elton Mayo’s human relations theory. These two movements have been proven to increase productivity in the workplace (Mullins, 2005).

According to the timeline by Jamrog and Overholt, the progression of HR developed from the early 1900s pre- and post-Industrial Revolution. This is where division of labor and production-oriented factories led to the Scientific Method of management. Frederick Taylor started to recognize a relation between worker satisfaction and

Throughout history, there have been many different approaches of management theories. Some theories longer exist because they are no longer relevant in today’s environment, but some theories are still implemented like Scientific Management and Human Relations. Scientific management emphasizes on efficiency productivity by motivating workers with monetary rewards. Human relations emphasize on motivation of workers by both financial rewards and a range of social factors (e.g. praise, a sense of belonging, feelings of achievement and pride in one’s work).

Although production needs are being met, improvements in productivity are always at the forefront of management’s thoughts. Doing more with less is a constant effort for middle management and hourly laborers. Over all the

The studies failed to prove any positive correlations between workplace conditions and productivity. The results of the studies demonstrated that innate forces of human behavior may have a greater influence on organizations than do mechanistic incentive systems. The legacy of the Hawthorne studies and other organizational research efforts of that period began to emphasize the importance of individual and group interaction, humanistic management skills, and social relationships in the workplace.

Scientific management is a management theory developed by Frederick W Taylor. Its main purpose is to improve an organization’s efficiency in production through analyzing workflow systematically using quantitative analysis to improve task completion efficiency. Reducing waste, increasing methods of production and create a just distribution of goods are goals of the scientific management theory. On the other hand, human relations theory attributed by Elton Mayo counteracts with scientific management theory that ignored human issues of behavior. In human relations theory, a worker is treated as an individual and what motivates and cultivates them in their achievement is analyzed. Both scientific management and human relation theory aims to improve efficiency in the workplace and it still applies to the workforce in the modern days despite the opposing ideas of both theories.

In Scientific Management, Frederick W. Taylor developed the techniques for improving efficiency in the workplace through the support given by the employees of its employer. He developed the “Time Study”, where he analyzes every motion to determine the most efficient way for a particular type of job. Through this, he identifies 4 guiding principles to improve the productivity of people at work. Another theory is Administrative Principles by Henry Fayol and Mary Parker Follett. In Fayol’s theory, he emphasizes that the proper management should interact with its employees. He believes that the variety of activities can be taught and worked on to improve managerial skills. By 14 principles of management, he concluded that the company should interact with its employees through its five rules of management: foresight, organization, command, coordination and control. On the other hand, Follett’s theory