Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

Paper: Perspectives on Public Administration

Lesson: Human Relations In Management: Elton

Mayo

Lesson Developer: Vaishali Narula

College/Department: Department of Political

Science, Kamala Nehru College

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

Table of Contents

Title: Human Relations in Management: Elton Mayo

• Introduction
-What went wrong with scientific theory of management
- Why Human Relations Theory
• Human Relations Theory
-Characteristics of Human Relations Theory
• Scientific Theory of management Vs Human Relations Theory
• Life and Works
• Early Experiments
• Hawthorne Experiment
-The Great Illumination Experiment
- The Bank wiring Experiment
- Assemblers Test Room Experiment
• Observations
• Criticism
• Evaluation
• In Brief
• Glossary
• Exercise/Practice
• References

Human Relations in Management: Elton Mayo

Introduction

The middle and the later decades of twentieth century in public administration was a
period of concern for worker as an individual. This was the period when the human
element in organization came to be defined as the most important factor in an
organization and its working. The academic disciplines such as sociology, psychology and

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

political philosophy focused on the perspective of the working of the organization and
raised their concern to the workers and their role in the organization. This phase
examined the features of scientific theory of organization which focused on the structure
and function of organization. The scientific theory of management had a priority on
organization control, bifurcation of employees as workers and managers with emphasis
on hierarchy. The scientific theory of management had set of standardized rules and
accountability mechanisms. It focused on competence and merit with rigorous standards
of selection. Thus, the scientific theory of management focused on efficient working of
organization and productivity.

What Went Wrong With Scientific Theory

The scientific theory with its hierarchical organization and standardization of rules made
the organization rigid and difficult to alter. The assumption that functions in an
organization would go unaltered irrespective of the outside world was a matter of
concern.

The Scientific theory of management implicitly emphasised on centralization of decision

making which focused on obligation towards rules and procedures. Due to which the
organization began to work with assembly- line production, lack of innovation and
absence of participation from the worker. Thus, the quality of production, the end was
important as against the participation of worker.

The theory perceived of workers to be unthinking who could be directed by managers

towards a particular task with pay increase and were accounted for every minute. Thus
the worker had a total loss of control in return of higher wages. The worker was totally
on abeyance of rules.

Thus the theory focused on plans, staff, direction, reporting and budgeting which are
essential for the working of an organization but it missed on the human element in
organization.

Why Human Relations Theory

The scientific theory of management missed out on certain facets which contribute to the
working of organization :

• A belief in the importance of the individual

• Cooperation and group activities are the bases of organization
• Associations are more significant for the effectiveness of organization.

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

• Psychological and sociological factors are more important than the physiological
factors in success of organization.
• Bottom -up communication is better as compared to top-down communication

Each of these elements are intertwined and links to the idea of human relations. Human
Relations theory emphasis on individualism and focuses on understanding the
behavioural aspect of workers.

Source: http://www.linkeden.com ,Accessed on October 6, 2015:8:15

HUMAN RELATIONS THEORY

The human relations approach has its origin in a series of studies conducted between
1927 and 1932 by a group of researchers from Harvard Business school. The researchers
Elton Mayo and Fredrick Roethlisberger , were under contract to western electric
company to study employee reactions to physical environment and therefore to
determine the optimum condition of working. The study conducted at Hawthorne,
Illinois , facility of western electric (and thereon came to be known as the Hawthorne
experiment) challenged the existing academic knowledge for working of an organization.
The experiment was carried out for seven years: 1924-1931 and uncovered various
sociological and psychological factors which play an important role in organization as
against simply the physical conditions. The human relations theory differed from the
traditional theories in the basic approach to the organization. It characterized
organization as a social system of individuals , with informal association and intergroup
relations in addition to formal structure.

Characteristics of Human Relations In Management

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

Human factor is the most important factor in the in an organization and its activities of
production. So, the management should have pertinent and basic knowledge of human
behaviour. Human relations require an understanding of the behaviour of people, their
knowledge and support. The main characteristics of human relations are:
• Integrative Process: Human relations are an integral process by which
individual and his work are made a part of the organization. So it is a co-
operation of the achievement of interest of the organization as a whole.
• Agreeable co-operation: The principal objective should be to secure willing
cooperation of the employees. So the employees should be motivated to offer
cooperation for achieving targets of greater, cheaper and better production

How Is Human Relations Theory Different From Scientific Management Theory?

The findings of the Hawthorne Experiments led to a clash between the Human Relations
School and the Scientific Management School.

HUMAN RELATIONS THEORY SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

 The Human Relations theory is  The Scientific Management theory is

based on the personalized human based on the mechanical rule based
psychology of the worker and system of financial incentives.
emphasized that man/woman does
not work for money alone.
 It emphasized the catalytic roles of  It emphasized on the
informal groups. standardization of formal system of
rules.
 It talks about maintaining open  It focuses upon financial incentives
humane relations with the workers as the great motivating force for the
as the great motivating force. workers.

 It thought of workers as  It thought of workers as isolated

sentimental beings in close groups and unrelated beings pursuing their
pursuing general rather than desire for higher wages to the
individual interests. extent of becoming neurotic.

Life and Works

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

George Elton Mayo(1880-1949) was born in Adelaide, Australia. He was educated at

Queen's School and Collegiate School of St. Peter. He had a chequered schooling and
medical education which he left in between. Bored with medical education , he went to
West Africa in 1903 and after returning he began to work a s journalist. He began to
teach English at Working Men's College. In Edinburgh, he was associated with in a study
of pschyo pathology. In 1910 he graduated with honours and in 1911 joined as a
lecturer in the University of Queensland. He was appointed as the first chairman in the
department of philosophy in 1919 where he was engaged with logic and ethics. Thereon
he got the Rockfeller fellowship with the university of Pennsylvania and in 1929 joined
the Harvard school of business Administration. It was here that he undertook the path
breaking Hawthorne experiment. Throughout his life he was encouraged and supported
for all his research and experiments by various institutes and universities.

He retired in 1947 and moved to UK. As a tribute to his contributions Elton Mayo school
of management was established in Adelaide.he is recognized as a progenitor of human
relations movement. Following his work the later works focused on relevance of
communication between workers and management.

Value Addition- Know it better

Human Relations Movement

Human relations movement refers to the researchers of organizational development who

study the behaviour of people in groups, in particular workplace groups and other related
concepts in fields such as industrial and organizational psychology.

Early Experiments

Elton Mayo has carried out series of experiments to understand the physical, social and
psychological problems which governed the working of organization. his studies
concentrated on the fatigue, accident, rest period, production levels, working condition
etc. He became famous when he studied the spinning department of a textile mill in
Pennsylvania. The mill provided facilities to workers and the supervisors were humane,
but the level of retention with the mill was poor.

Mayo studied the problem of the department from various perspectives such as physical,
social and psychological. He observed that that workers had to go up and down many

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

times so they were fatigued. A set of workers were to watch the thread spinning up and
down which was monotonous.

The peers were located far apart and the communication amongst them was not
possible. The fatigue with work did not leave any time for any kind of social interactions.
But the workers did not share this with the president who was a army colonel.

When Mayo shared his observations the president encouraged rest period amongst
workers with monetary bonus on achievement of target. All this led to rise in interest of
workers, increase in turnover and morale improved. Here Mayo questioned the ' Rabble
Hypothesis' which assumes that 'mankind as a horde of unorganized individuals actuated
by self interest', was questioned. In this experiment that turnover was not the result of
working condition but the emotional response which led to rise in performance of
workers. He also that it was not monotony but isolated work conditions which led
abnormal results and disinterest.

Hawthorne
Experiment

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Hawthorne experiment emerged from the exploration of the dimension of organizational

behaviour perspective and modern theories of motivation. The Hawthorne experiment
examined the interrelationship amongst the various variables and furthur to understand
the difference they created in levels of motivation. The experiments were carried on for
a period of seven years focused on difference in individual needs, willingness to listen,
group norms, feedback etc. It comprises of series of three experiments. The research
began in 1924.

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

Value Addition – Read Further

Hawthorne Experiments

You may further read from Darity, William A.(2007): International Encyclopedia of
Social Sciences, Gale : Cengage Learning

Publisher: Gale / Cengage Learning

The Great Illumination Experiment(1924-27)

This was the first phase of experiment . In this experiment two group of female workers
each comprising of six people were located in two separate rooms, each performing the
same task. The rooms were equally illuminated and this was designed to examine the
level of production with varying levels of illumination. One group was the control group
in which the level of illumination was constant and in the other group which comprised of
a set of women initially had a stable physical environment but slowly the conditions were
altered. They were subjected to changing levels of illumination. This group was called
the 'test group'. The results of the experiment were surprising as it was observed that
productivity in both the groups went up. The researchers expected the productivity to go
down in the 'test group' as there were times when the levels of illumination were very
dim. But there was a stunning reversal in expectation. The productivity in both the
groups went up.

So apart from the working conditions they thought let's see if the change in incentives
or withdrawal of incentives had any impact. But no change .

This led the researchers to a lot of perplexity. It was then they discovered that the other
group had come to know that they are under observation so it was the awakening
knowledge that motivated them and it also brought to light that human factors play an
important role in production as compared to physical conditions.

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

Source :http://www.people.vcu.edu/12 october 2015/1:30 p.m

Assemblers Test Room Experiment(1928-31)

In this experiment an understanding was laid that organization is not a formal

association but comprises of informal cohesion amongst workers and supervisors, where
interaction amongst each of groups help in working of the organization.

A group of women were selected for this experiment in a test room. These group of
women were made to work in an informal atmosphere. They were given tea breaks and
breaks in between which led to a relaxed atmosphere. They were given free time to
interact with group members, rest periods, improved physical working conditions etc.
They were allotted a supervisor who was friendly them . The supervisor was to interact
with them time and gain where he was to understand the their feelings with respect to
the organization. the workers were free to talk of the topics of interest to them or the
environment of the organization. This friendly supervisor acted a vent for the workers
and this came to be known s the 'ventilation therapy' where the workers could share
with their supervisor.

In this experiment the women group felt special they are being the special status by
being placed in the test room. this added to their self esteem and group morale. they felt
important and enjoyed the attention in the informal group . In the group and with the
allotted supervisor they could interact informally which led cohesion among the group.

Thus, it emerged that socio- psychological factors such as recognition, attention,

importance, small informal association, non- direct supervision contributed to higher
worker productivity. The research team realized that in the absence of proper
appreciation of feelings and the sentiments of workers it was difficult to understand the
real problem and his sentiments which are directly derived from the social situation and
personal history.

Bank Wiring Experiment(1931-1932)

The final phase of the research programme at the Western Electric company was to
observe a group of workers performing a task in natural settings. Observation method
was adopted to analyse the group behaviour.

This was an experiment carried out on 14 workers making terminal banks of telephone
wiring assemblies. In this experiment an attempt was made to understand the informal
group norms and formal economic incentives on productivity. It was observed in spite of

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

informal association and incentives the workers followed certain norms. So the workers
were divided into groups and the norms they shared:

(i) The workers who produced too much "rate busters

(ii) The workers who didn’t like work and did little work" Chiseller

iii) Those who owned up against their co workers by sharing up with supervisor
"Squealer". this showed that there were rankings within the group and had set standards
of productivity for their members and standards were set within the group. Thus, the
people in the group set the pace and flow of work.

The results of Hawthorne experiment were published by Fritz Roethlisberger and

William Dickson in' Management and the Worker(1941).'The experiment
highlighted the influence of psychological, social and other intangible factors on
productivity. The study revealed the impact of informal group and interpersonal relation
on workers which contribute to worker satisfaction and organizational output. The human
relations skill and the supervisor should work to effectively bridge the gap informal and
formal organization.

Source: http://essays24.org/12 october:15:1:30p.m

Thus informal organizations with friendship groups and unplanned interactions can exist
alongside the ' formal organization' as outlined in the classical management. The
management should not work as economic automatons' but should encourage cohesion
amongst each other. thus, promotion of a climate of good human relations where all
groups 'usefully' function. Human Relations scholars, dismissed the centrality of the cash

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

nexus. Instead they emphasized workplace culture, interpersonal relations, and group
cohesion as the determinants of worker performance. Mayo and his colleagues insisted
that one should not miss the human aspect of an organization while focusing on the
economic and technical ones. In addition to the technical skills the management should
take care of the human situations, motivate, lead and communicate. may disagreed with
the 'Rabble Hypothesis' and its over emphasis on techniques and material gains.

Value Addition- Know it More

Rabble Hypothesis
The word "rabble" means a disorderly crowd; a mob. The "Rabble hypothesis" as a term
was coined by the British classical economist David Ricardo. He viewed society as
"nothing more than a horde of atomistic individuals each of whom acts rationally in
pursuit above all else of their own self-interest." Mayo criticised it and said that
cooperation rather than competition was as important.

OBSERVATIONS

On the bases of the three experiments Mayo and his team found certain characteristics
in the industry.

• Informal relation with workers interpersonal relationship amongst the workers

helped.
• It is not only the managers which were to form informal relationship with his
team but were to also encourage informal relationship amongst the workers.
• The workers should be treated as humans and not as cogs in a machine.
• The workers and managers should work as a team.
• The workers should be given an opportunity to share their personal peculiarities
• Focus should be on creating of conducive situation
• Spontaneous cooperation should be encouraged so that objectives of the
organization can be achieved without any pitfalls.
• Adequate communication system is important especially from workers to
manager if organizations are to achieve their objectives

These observations clearly show that the significance of the Hawthorne

experiment was in discovering informal organization with spontaneous
cooperation and adequate communication.

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

CRITICISM

Mayo's study has been subjected to strong criticism where supervisors and informal
relationship with them seemed to take the place of employee union. It was categorically
stated that unions have a place in the society which has been overlooked. It is often
described to be pro -management and anti -union.
It was also outlined that conclusions were drawn from few studies which had various
lacunae. critics like Carey said Hawthorne group in their first experiment selected the set
of girls who were ready to participate in a research programme. The sample size was
very small with a set of five girls and the technique of sample choice was also
inadequate.
The data supported views such as incentive and leadership as motivating factors for
better output but the investigations missed on scientific base. There is no empirical
relationship between:
-Worker satisfaction and productivity (Schwab and Cummings,1970)
-Leadership style and productivity (Hollander & Julian,1969)
-Decision-making participation and satisfaction or productivity (Vroom, 1969)
Peter Drucker has criticised the human relations theory for overlooking the economic
dimension and instead has focused on interpersonal relation. So focus has been on
sentiments and a neglect towards work and purpose.
Mayo's idea has been described to be utopian as it is looking for a conflict free
organization. This is unrealistic as in every human situation conflicts and tensions are
inevitable. So the effort should be towards building up of social and technological
dimensions and outlets away from working towards a conflict free situation.

EVALUATION
Human Relations theory encouraged the vision of human nature in organization. The
contribution of Mayo's human relation theory is substantial to understand the industrial
labour and organization. Human relations theory with its Hawthorne experiment is
historic and a landmark in administrative thought. It promoted cooperation over
competition and interdependence over individualism. The set of experiments by Mayo
and his team set the path for social theories. The "new" theoretical framework focused
on the social needs. The changing needs and the complex industrial society led to the
theoretical framework where social ethic became important.

It is important to understand that Hawthorne studies were conducted at the time of

great depression as against Taylorism which arose at the time of competition,

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

individualism and social merit. Individual and his self interest was important. The change
in economic conditions led to a climate of social ethic and widened the role of
management philosophy where, it was opined that employees' sense of security,
achievement and belongingness led to the flow of efficiency and productivity. His work
is a marker which brilliantly analysed the behaviour of the workers and laid down that
organization is a set of informal relationship at various levels with communication as an
important facet.

In Brief

Elton Mayo's contribution to organization can be outlined as:

• Elton mayo is the pioneer to the Human Relations theory of organization.
• Mayo is known for Hawthorne Experiment.
• His research questions the ' Rabble hypothesis' which assumes mankind to be
accentuated by their self interest.
• the Hawthorne experiment concentrated on understanding the relationship
between physical work, environment and productivity of worker.
• Mayo's studied concluded that there is increase in productivity in- spite of positive
or negative changes. This he called as the 'Hawthorne effect 'where it was
outlined that workers improve productivity when they know that are being
experimentally measured irrespective of conditions.
• Human aspects are important in an organization. Group behaviour also has an
impact on an organization.
• Informal groups are important in an organization. The workers should be treated
with human perspective and this has an effect on productivity.
• Mayo's study however failed to take into account the role of social , economic and
technological factors on productivity of worker in organization.

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

Glossary

• Ventilation Therapy- When the supervisor acts as a vent for the workers and the
workers are able to share their feelings. So the workers find a way to express
themselves.
• Squealar- Those who owned up against their co workers by sharing up with
supervisor.
• Chiseller- The workers who didn't like to work and did little work.
• Rate Buster- The workers who work dilligently and produce more.
• Individualism- is the political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that
emphasizes the moral worth of the individual.
• Behaviouralism- it is the ideology in political science which emphasises on
objective, quantified approach to explain and predict political behaviour.
• Formal Organization- A fixed set of rules procedures and structures in an
organization.

Questions

1. Enunciate the differences between scientific theory of management and

Human Relations Theory.

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

2. What is Rabble Hypothesis?

3. Discuss the Hawthorne experiments carried out by Elton Mayo.
4. What is Human Relations Theory. What led to the rise of Human Relations
Theory?

Exercise/ Practice
1. Along with Mayo the researcher who worked to understand the employees
reactions to different physical environment was:
a. F. W. Taylor b. Fredrick Roethlisberger
c. Herbert Simon d. Max Weber
2. The set of experiments carried out by Mayo to study Human relations are
popularly known as:
a. Hawthorne Experiment b. Motivation Experiment
c. Illumination Experiment c. Test room Experiment
3. The results of the Hawthorne experiment were published in the work titled:
a .Motivation of workers b. Management and the Worker
c. Business administration and Management d. Applied Human Relations
4. Elton Mayo conducted the Hawthorne experiment at
a. General Electric Company b. Enterprises company
c. Coal Mining d. Study of Society

5. In the Great Illumination experiment the changes in illumination led to:

a. Little impact on output of test group
b. Large impact on output of test group
c. No impact on output

The Experiment in which the workers had informal interaction with their supervisor and
had time to interact with each other was the :

a. The Illumination Experiment

b. Assembler's Test Room Experiment

c. Relay Experiment

d. Bank Wiring Experiment

Reference

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 Human Relations In Management: Elton Mayo

• Nigro & Nigro(1984), Modern Public Administration: Harper & Row, NY, pp
153-155
• Muldoon, J. The Hawthorne legacy: A reassessment of the impact of the
Hawthorne studies on management scholarship, 1930-1958. Journal of
Vocational Behaviour, Vol.18 (1) 2012, pp.105-119.
• Chakrabarty & Chand(2012), Public Administration in a Globalizing World:
Theories and Practices: Sage India, pp74-81
• Overvold, G. The imperative organizational harmony: A critique of
contemporary Human Relations Theory. Journal of Business Ethics,
Vol.6(7) 1987,pp559-565
• Cecil, A. Economic Relations: Human Relations. Journal of Economic and
Sociology, Vol.18(3) 1959, pp259-276.
• Barmeld, T, Conceptualizing Human Relations, The Journal of Educational
Sociology, Vol.23(6) 1950. pp 315-328
• Sarachek. B, Elton mayo's Social Psychology and Human Relations. The
Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2 ( 1968), pp. 189-197
• Etzioni , A. Human Relations and the Foreman, The Pacific Sociological
Review, Vol.1(1), 1958, pp.33-38
• Bhattacharya, M.(2013), New Horizons of Public Administration, Jawahar
Publisher: Delhi
• Sahni & Vayunandan. (2010) Administrative Theory. New Delhi: Prentice
Hall of India. pp.295-309.
• Miner, J.B. (2006) ‘Elton Mayo and Hawthrone’, in Organisational
Behaviour : Historical Origins and the Future. New York: M.E. Sharpe, pp.
59-69

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