Subject : Public Administration

Course : Economic and Financial Administration

Title of Module : Elton Mayo (1880-1949)

SANJEEV MAHAJAN

An Abstract:

George Elton Mayo is known for his Hawthorne and other experiments. He studied
both industrial sociology and psychology and devoted his attention in studying the problems
of private industrial establishments on the one hand and fatigues, industrial accidents, rest
periods on the other. His name is associated with Human Relations Approach in industry. He
paid more attention to the workers than to the machines and stressed that one should not miss
human aspect of the organization while stressing technical and economic aspects of
industries.

Introduction:
Elton Mayo (1880-1949) widely known for his Hawthorne studies has been called the
founder of both, the Human Relations Movement and of Industrial Sociology. He was born at
Adelaide, Australia who, after graduation studied medicine and left the same for Psychology
and Philosophy. He successfully organized psychiatric treatment to shell shocked soldiers of
the 1st World War in recognition of which he was made Chairman of the Department of
Philosophy at the University of Queensland in I9I9. He was in United States from 1926 to
1947 and held the post of Professor of Industrial Research at the Graduate School of Business
Administration, Harvard University. It was here that Mayo started in 1927 the most intensive
studies on human relations known as “Hawthorne Studies” conducted at the Western Electric
Company’s Hawthorne Plant near Chicago. The studies lasted more than five years (1927-
32). The resulting “Hawthorne Studies” as they helped in developing the Human Relation
School”. Mayo died in 1949.

Key Words: Industrial, human aspect, human problem, Social problems, Political problems,
Human relations approach, Human Relation School.

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Mayo’s Major Works:
Important Academic works of Mayo are:
1. The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization (1933).
2. The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization (1945).
3. The Political Problem of Industrial Civilization (1947).
(Incomplete at the time of his retirement)
In addition, he published five research papers in different journals.
Fritz Roethlisberger of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration was
Mayo’s research assistant for the Hawthorne Studies.
Roethlisberger’s major works:
1. Management and the Workers (1939) written in collaboration with William J.
Dickson.
2. Management and Morale (1941)
3. Training for Human Relations (1954)

The Hawthorne Studies (details):

These studies were conducted during 1924-32. The initial objective was to study the
effects of illumination on output. The research project was sponsored by the National
ResearchCouncil and was initiated in November 1924 at the Hawthorne Works of the
Western Electric Company near Cicero Illinois. There were four major phases of this study:
1. The Illumination Experiments,
2. Relay Assembly Test Room,
3. Massive Interviewing Programme, and
4. Bank Wiring Observation Room.
1. Illumination Experiments

This was an orthodox experiment. The influence of illumination upon the levels and
maintenance of output were observed. This phase lasted for two and one-half years. The
experiments were conducted on two groups of operatives. For one group, variations in the
intensity of lighting were made periodically. In case of the second group, the lighting was not
changed and was kept constant throughout the experiments. Surprisingly, the output of both
the groups increased steadily. Thus, it was concluded that the causes for the increased output
must be found elsewhere. Light was only a factor affecting output and it was a minor factor.
The experiments also were not designed properly. Hence, the results were inconclusive.

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 2. Relay Assembly Test Room

This phase divided into three sub-phases, namely, First Assembly Group, Second
Assembly Group and The Mica Splitting Group.
i) First Relay Assembly Group:
This phase of experiments lasted from April 1927 to August 1932. In this experiment,
six women operatives were placed in a separate test room. Before separating this group of
six, there output of relays (Switch Board Components) were measured and recorded secretly.
They were told to work in a natural way in the test room and in briefing meetings with the
research team. They were allowed to comment freely about the arrangements. Periodical
checking was also arranged for the group. An observer for ensuring the girls’ attitude to the
test was also posted in the test room. During the first two years, the conditions of work were
gradually changed. At the initial stage a group-bonus incentive scheme was introduced. After
this, rest pauses of varying duration, shorter hours of work, shorter working week, free snacks
and other changes were introduced. With the introduction of each privilege, old privileges
were generally retained. During twelfth period all privileges were temporarily withdrawn,
however, in the thirteenth these were restored. It was found that during all these periods the
hourly rate of output increased (during only one period of these the output did not increase).
The output recorded increase even during twelfth period when privileges were withdrawn.
The girls had developed more friendliness among them and a liking for the test room. The
output rose by as much as 30 per cent. The observer assumed more supervisory duties and
became more friendly to the girls working in the test room. From July 1929 onwards, the girls
showed less interest in the experiments and replacements were made in the group. Due to the
slump (Great Depression) the girls became more concerned about their job security.
ii) Second Relay Assembly Group:
The research was devise to re-test some of the factors on other groups. For testing the
effects of incentives, five experienced relay men were selected and were allowed to work
where they were working, but they were paid the group bonus incentives, as the group was
paid in the first experiment. During the nine weeks, there was 13 per cent increase in the
output on average per person. Their higher earnings caused envy and discord in the
department.
iii) The Mica Splitting Group:
This experiment, as a matter of fact, had started three months before the above
experiment and continued even after the conclusion of the Second Relay Assembly Group.
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Again a group of five girls were placed in the other test room. They were exposed to changes
in working conditions. Over a period of two years, changes were introduced in the working,
conditions five times. The method of payment was not changed. They were required to work
overtime also at times. The output increased by 15 per cent on average. It was not a cohesive
group and the girls were different from each other temperamentally and socially. The
researchers concluded that the workers had become a social group with their own
expectations and standards. In the words of Mayo, “….the itemized changes experimentally
imposed… could not be used to explain the major changes…. the continually increased
production”. The resultant increase in production was on account of work satisfaction caused
by great freedom in working environment. The interaction and co-operation, values, norms,
and social relationship had been build up as a result of informal practices and group cohesion.
The communication between the workers and the researchers was complete. Thus, the
workers felt that the norms of output were those which the researchers wanted. The
supervisors also took keen interest. This developed the sense of participation which
drastically changed the working pattern. Mayo, therefore, concluded that “the work
satisfaction depends to a large extent on the informal social patter of the work group. Where
norms of cooperativeness and high output are established because of a feeling of importance,
physical conditions have little impact.”

3. Massive Interviewing Programme (The Clinical Phase)

This programme was undertaken as a plan for improving supervision. The interviews
were more or less structured. Eighty topics were selected and relies on these topics were
analysed, which reflected the nature of attitudes of the respondents towards these eighty
topics. It was found that male workers were more economically oriented than the female
workers. A change was introduced in the interviewing technique. Respondents were asked to
discuss those issues freely with which they were preoccupied. Some supervisors were
conducted amongst supervisors also. The supervisors suffered from fears and tensions as they
were in between the workers and management. The supervisors were anticipating human
relations in the handling of workers.
Important discoveries were made about the attitudes of various employees. It was
found at this stage of enquiry that “many problems of worker-management co-operation were
the result of the emotionally based attitudes of the workers rather than of objective difficulties
in the situations.” According to Mayo, the workers were activated by a “logic of sentiment”

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but the management is concerned with the “logic of cost and efficiency.” Thus a conflict
becomes inevitable.

4. The Bank Wiring Observation Group

These studies were carried out between November 1931 and July 1932. In this group,
there were fourteen men, including nine wiremen, three solder men and two inspectors. They
all were paid on group basis. They were working well according to their capabilities. This
stage of enquiry is known as Bank Wiring Observation Room Studies. The situation was not-
experimental. At this stage of enquiry, it was found that the workers group had standard for
output of their own and they stuck to this standard. Workers were indifferent towards the
company’s financial incentive scheme. It was a highly integrated cohesive group. There was
solidarity among the workers. This solidarity was directed against management. The workers
believed in neither too much work nor too less work. Mayo concluded that the informal social
grouping played a significant role in determining the levels of output.
The most significant discovery of these Experiments was in finding out the existence
of informal organizations in all organizations. The experiments amply indicate that stable
social relationships in the work situation are most important to individuals. On the basis of
this, Mayo concluded that the “rabble hypothesis” about human behaviour was unfounded.
Rabble hypothesis means that workers are a disorganized rabble of individuals. Each one is to
promote his self-interest. The objectives of good management are achieved when the
individuals are impressed upon to act and behave as the management wishes them to do. It is
believed that work is a group activity. In the modern industrial society, the traditional
groupings and ties are weakened. Under such a situation work group assumes special
importance. Technological changes disrupt the formal and informal group. Which tell
adversely upon the worker’s sense of belonging for the organization? It also deprives him of
the recognition which he had attained within a cohesive group. This disturbance in the
balance manifests itself in complaints of various types about the management and the
working conditions. In the words of Mayo:
“Generally speaking ……. The responses of any adult individual to his surroundings
are of three types:
(a) Logical. In this area he has developed skill and capacity for discrimination and
independent judgment.

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 (b) Non-logical. The individual’s actions may be adequate to the situation, but any
intelligence they exhibit is socially and not personally derived. This form of response
is the effect of training in a social code of behaviour.
(c) Irrational. Non-logical response is typical of social adjustment. Irrational response…
is symptomatic of social maladjustment and shows all signs of obsession.
The non-logical response, which is in strict conformity with a social code, makes for
social order and discipline, firm and effective collaboration in a restricted range of activity,
and for happiness and a sense of security in the individual.
The individual worker, whether capable of it or not, does not want to develop a
blackboard logic which shall guide his method of life and work. That he wants is more nearly
described as, first, a method of living in social relationship with other people and second, as
part of this an economic function for and for value to the group ….. Socialism, Communism,
Marxism would seem to be irrelevant to industrial events of the twentieth century. These
doctrines probably express the workers’ desire to recapture something of the lost human
solidarity …. As we lose the non-logic of a social code, we must substitute logic of
understanding. In all critical posts in communal activity, we had intelligent persons capable
of analyzing an individual or a group attitude in terms of, first, the degree of logical
understanding manifest; second, the non-logic of social codes in action; and third, the
irrational exasperation symptomatic of conflict and baffled effort. If we had an elite capable
of such analysis, very many of our difficulties would dwindle to vanishing…… Our leaders
tend to state these problems in terms of systematic economics, and since the gravity of the
issue is human and social and not primarily economic, their statements are not relevant.”

Mayo’s Contribution to Management Thought

1. Human Relations Approach

Elton Mayo helped in understanding the importance of human factor in

administration. In addition man is not a machine, a statistics or a mere abstraction but a living
being with emotions. The researchers concluded that informal work group – the social
environment of employees – have a positive influence on productivity. Many of Western
Electric’s employees found their work dull and friendships with co-workers, sometimes
influenced by a shared antagonism toward the “bosses”, imparted some meaning to their
working lives and provided some protection from management. For these reasons, group

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pressure was frequently a stronger influence on worker productivity than management
demands.

2. Informal Groups Play an Important Role in the Organizations

Elton Mayo appreciated that an individual besides being the member of the formal
organization is also a member of informal organization which is more near to him and which
guides him. The Mayo, then, the concept of “social Man” – motivated by social needs,
wanting rewarding on-the-job relationships, and responding more to work-group pressures
than to management control – was necessary to complement the old concept of “rational
man” motivated by personal economic needs. All these findings might seem associates
considered relevant with what Ford and Weber found relevant, and you see what a change
these ideas brought to management theory.
Keith Devis has enumerated the following five practical benefits, which can be
derived from informal organizations, which may be kept in mind by the management.
i. It blends with the formal organization to make a workable system for getting the work
done;
ii. It lightens the workload of the formal manager and fills in some of the gaps in his
abilities;
iii. It gives suggestion and stability to work groups;
iv. It is a very useful channel of communication in the organization; and
v. Its presence encourages the manager to plan and act more carefully than he would
otherwise do.
3. Understanding the Social Needs which are More Important for
Organizations Development

Followers of the behavioural school view the important and focal point of managerial
action to be the behaviour of the human being. What is achieved, how it is achieved, and why
it is achieved are viewed in relation to their impact and influence on people, who are really
the important component of management. Followers of this school say, “Management does
not do; it gets others to do.” Voluminous writings from this school show the need for the
manager to use the best human relations practices. Among the more emphasized topics are
human relations, motivation, leadership, training, and communication.
The individual is viewed as a socio-psychological being, and the tasks facing the
manager range from understanding and securing the best efforts from an employee by

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satisfying psychological needs, to comprehending the whole gamut of psychological
behaviour of groups as representing the totality of management.
Elton May Said:
(i) Man is basically motivated by social needs and obtains his basic sense of identity
through relationships with others.
(ii) As a result of the industrial revolution and the rationalization of work, meaning has
gone out of work itself and must, therefore, be sought in the social relationships on
the job.
(iii)Man is more responsive to the social forces of the peer group than to the incentives
and controls of management.
(iv) Man is responsive to management to the extent that a supervisor can meet a
subordinate’s social needs and needs for acceptance.
The Hawthorne studies were a turning point in the study of management. As the
research became more widely known, managers and management experts began to recognize
that human behaviour at work is a complex and powerful force. The human relations
movement, inspired by this realization, emphasized that workers were not just given in the
system, but had needs and desires that the organization and task had to accommodate.

4. Need of Understanding Psychological Impulses is to Promote Good

Organization

Elton Mayo observed: “What social and industrial research has not sufficiently
realized as yet is that these minor irrationalities of the ‘average normal’ person are
cumulative in their effect. They may not cause ‘breakdown’ in the individual but they do
cause ‘breakdown’ in the industry …… the not-logical response, that, which is in strict
conformity with a social code, makes for social order and discipline, for effective
collaboration in a restricted range of activity and for happiness and a sense of security in the
individual.”

5. Disregard of Rabble Hypothesis

The word rabble means crowd or mob and Rabble hypothesis takes the view of men
being a crowd of individuals interested in their individual interest. Such a negative view of
man by Taylor’s Scientific Management was called rabble hypotheses. Elton Mayo puts the
following points to refute the rabble theory.

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 (i) postulating that it was collaboration with others, not competition among a
disorganized horde, that was important;
(ii) stating that all individuals acted to protect their group status and not their self-interest;
and
(iii)repeating the Hawthorne findings that thinking was guided more by sentiment than by
logic.
“We have learned how to destroy scores of thousands of human beings in a moment
of time; we do not know how systematically to set about the task of inducing various groups
and nations to collaborate in the tasks of civilization. It is not the atomic bomb that willdestry
civilization. But civilized society can destroy itself …… if it fails to understand intelligently
and to control the aids and deterrents to cooperation.”
Thus, Elton Mayo, was the pioneer in building Human Relation theory.
If one walks through any factory and observes men at work, one finds that they
generally work in small groups. We may call these groups primary working groups. While
the work goes on, workers are found talking, to each other, gossiping, throwing paper balls,
laughing or singing. In the process, the individual worker loses his identiy and becomes a
member of the group. The workers act and react to one another. Proper understanding of such
working groups is important for organizational efficiency.

A Critical Evaluation
Despite the widespread influence of the human relations school on industrial
management in America, it has not acquired universal recognition. Mayo’s finding of
Hawthorne experiment and the human relations approach were subjected to severe criticism.
1. Critics say that the human relations concept deals only with internal variables but
ignores the environment. The approach tends to focus on a narrow range of variables.
Critics like Carey criticize the Hawthorne experiment/ group for having a selected a
small sample of five or six girls which could not be taken as reliable sample to make
generalizations.
2. It lacks methodology – small sample size, limited organizations. It is based on a
limited data, clinical bias, overlooked under social context.
3. Methods adopted by the human relations school are regarded as manipulating
methods which tend to impose leader’s views on workers. Loren Bartiz criticizes
Mayoists as anti-union and pro-management.

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 4. Peter F. Drucker says that Mayo’s human relations school for ignoring the dignity of
man. He also feels that the Harvard group neglected the nature of work and instead
focused on interpersonal relations.

An Evaluation

The contribution of Mayo to administrative organization theory is innovative and

substantial. For the first time, he made an attempt to understand the problems of the industrial
labour from an angle different from the traditional approach of scientific management era. In
addition to human relations in organizations, Mayo critically examined the employee-
employer relations, stability of the labour, supervision, etc. of the industrial workers. Mayo
was the moving spirit behind all the experiments conducted at different point of times. The
famous Hawthorne studies became a landmark and historic contribution in administrative
thought. His contributions are immensely useful not only to the industrial sector but also in
administrative systems of a state, particularly in the case of bureaucracy. His work paved the
way for adequate communication system between the lower rungs of the organization and the
higher levels. The total contributions of Mayo are such a phenomenon that he is regarded as
one of the founding fathers of human relations concept in the administrative thought. Taken
as a whole, the significance of Hawthorne investigations by Mayo was in discovering
informal organization, which is now realized, exists in all organizations. The importance of
group affecting the behaviour of workers at work was brilliantly analyzed through these
experiments.

References:

R.K. Sapru (1996), Introduction to Administrative Theory, S. Chand & Company Ltd.
New Delhi
R.N. Singh (1977), Management Thought and Thinkers, Sultan Chand & Sons, New
Delhi.
D. Ravindra Prasad, et.al. (2010), Administrative Thinkers, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,
New Delhi.
S.R. Maheshwari (1998), Administrative Thinkers, MacMillan India Ltd., New Delhi.

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Quick Review

1. Discuss the early life and works of Elton Mayo.

2. Write the implications of Hawthorne Experiments to theory of organization.
3. Discuss the different phases of Hawthorne Experiments.
4. Examine the main issues of Mayo’s criticism.

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