Elton Mayo

George Elton Mayo concluded that people's work performance is dependent on both social issues and
job content.
Key Points

The human relations movement refers to the researchers of organizational development who study
the behavior of people in groups, particularly workplaces.

The movement viewed workers in terms of their psychology and fit with companies rather than as
interchangeable parts, and it resulted in the creation of the discipline of human resource management.

Norms of cooperation and higher output were established because of a feeling of importance,
physical conditions or financial incentives had little motivational value.

Term

human resource management

The process of hiring and developing employees so that they become more valuable to the
organization.

Give us feedback on this content: Edit this content directly

The human relations movement refers to the researchers of organizational development who study the
behavior of people in groups, in particular workplace groups. It originated in the 1930s' Hawthorne
Studies, which examined the effects of social relations, motivation, and employee satisfaction on factory
productivity. The movement viewed workers in terms of their psychology and fit with companies rather
than as interchangeable parts, and it resulted in the creation of the discipline of human resource
management.

George Elton Mayo is known as the founder of the Human Relations Movement and was known for his
research, including the Hawthorne Studies and his book, The Human Problems of an Industrialized
Civilization (1933). The research he conducted under the Hawthorne Studies of the 1930s showed the
importance of groups in affecting the behavior of individuals at work. Mayo's employees, Roethlisberger
and Dickson, conducted the practical experiments. This enabled Mayo to make certain deductions about
how managers should behave. He carried out a number of investigations to look at ways of improving
productivityfor example, by changing lighting conditions in the workplace. What he found, however,
was that work satisfaction depended to a large extent on the informal social pattern of the work group.
Where norms of cooperation and higher output were established because of a feeling of importance ,
physical conditions or financial incentives had little motivational value. People will form work groups,
and this can be used by management to benefit the organization. In short, he concluded that people's
work performance is dependent on both social issues and job content. He suggested a tension between
workers' "logic of sentiment" and managers' "logic of cost and efficiency" which could lead to conflict
within organizations.
Motivation
Motivation makes for courageous decisions.
Motivation
Motivation makes for courageous decisions.

George Elton Mayo stressed the importance of natural groups, in which social aspects take precedence
over functional organizational structures. He also encouraged upwards communication, by which
communication is two-way, from worker to chief executive, as well as vice versa. Companies need their
employees to be able to successfully communicate and convey information, to be able to interpret
others' emotions, to be open to others' feelings, and to be able to solve conflicts and arrive at
resolutions. By acquiring these skills, the employees, those in management positions, and the customer
can maintain more compatible relationships. Cohesive and good leadership is needed to communicate
goals and to ensure effective and coherent decision making. It has become a concern of many
companies to improve the job-oriented interpersonal skills of employees. The teaching of these skills to
employees is referred to as "soft skills" training.
Criticisms

Elton Mayo's work is considered the counterpoint of Taylorism and scientific management by various
academics. Taylorism, founded by F. W. Taylor, sought to apply science to the management of
employees in the workplace in order to gain economic efficiency through labor productivity. On the
other hand, Elton Mayo's work has been widely attributed to the discovery of the "social person,"
thereby allowing for workers to be seen as individuals rather than merely robots designed to work for
unethical and unrealistic productivity expectations. However, this theory has been contested, as Mayo's
purported role in the human relations movement has been questioned. Nonetheless, although
Taylorism attempted to justify scientific management as a holistic philosophy rather than a set of
principles, the human relations movement worked parallel to the notion of scientific management
aiming to address the social welfare needs of workers and therefore elicit their co-operation as a
workforce.