Managing people

The human relations

movement
Lecture 4
Learning Objectives
• At the conclusion of this topic, student
should be able to:
– Review the findings of the Hawthorne studies and
comment on the validity of these findings;
– Examine the contribution of human relations
school theorists to our understanding of the
relationship between organisational goals and
human motivation;
– Describe the different strategies that can be
employed by managers to increase the quality of
working life of employees;
– Explore the rationale behind the implementation of
current progressive human resource management
practices;
– Provide relevant examples of progressive human
resource management strategies.
 The Hawthorne Plant

● Western Electric, the manufacturing unit of Bell

Telephone System, produced telephones, cables,
transmission equipment, and switching equipment.
● 1929 - more than 40,000 employees
● Forerunners in applying scientific management to
its production units
 Employee WElfare
● In the early 1900s, poor working conditions experienced by
industrial workers are brought to national attention
● To inspire company loyalty, discourage high employee
turnover and unionization, and present a good face to the
public, corporate managers began to focus on the well-being
of the employee
● In addition to pensions, sick pay, disability benefits, and stock
purchase plans, Western Electric workers could participate in
a range of recreational and educational programs from
running meets, tennis games, and baseball leagues to
lunchtime concerts, beauty pageants, and evening classes.
The company’s accident prevention programs included the
introduction of safety shoes, eye goggles, and guards for
heavy machinery.
● To better understand worker productivity and job
satisfaction, Western Electric became increasingly interested
in studies from the social, behavioral, and medical sciences.
 Illumination Studies
1924 - 1927 : set out to determine the effects of lighting ( (amount of
light at the workplace, a physical factor) on worker efficiency in three
separate manufacturing departments.

Hypothesis : higher illumination, productivity will increase

experimental group control group

varying intensities of constant intensities of
illumination illumination

● no significant correlation between productivity and light levels

● human factor was important in determining productivity but which aspect
was affecting, it was not sure.
 relay assembly department
● The next experiments beginning in 1927
focused on the relay assembly department
● The manufacture of relays required the
repetitive assembly of pins, springs, armatures,
insulators, coils, and screws.
● Western Electric produced over 7 million relays
annually.
● As the speed of individual workers determined
overall production levels, the effects of factors
like rest periods and work hours in this
department were of particular interest to the
company.
● In a separate test room, an operator prepared
parts for five women to assemble.
● The women dropped the completed relays into
a chute where a recording device punched a
hole in a continuously moving paper tape.
● The number of holes revealed the production
rate for each worker.
● Working conditions were changed in order to
determine variation in output of five women
engaged in assembling a telephone part;
● Researchers were unsure if productivity
increased in this experiment because of the
introduction of rest periods, shorter working
hours, wage incentives, the dynamics of a
smaller group, or the special attention the
women received
 Enter Elton Mayo
● Elton Mayo was born in Adelaide,
Australia in 1880
● Lecturer, taught mental and moral
philosophy at the University of
Queensland
● In 1923, Mayo became a research
associate at the University of
Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, studying
the effects of fatigue on employee
turnover
● Founder of the Human Relations
● He carried out a number of
investigations to look at ways of
improving productivity
 First phrase : Relay Assembly Test Room
• In 1928, George Pennock welcomed Mayo’s arrival at the
Hawthorne Works
• 1927- 1932 The studies monitoring the output of relay
assembly workers
• Investigators selected two young women who choose
another four 🡪 group of six;
• The group assembled telephone relays – small, intricate
mechanisms composed of about forty separate parts;
• Assembled by the young women seated alone at a bench;
and
• Relays were mechanically counted when finished.
 First phrase : Relay Assembly Test Room
● The experiments started with introducing numerous
changes in sequence with duration of each change
ranging from four to twelve weeks.
● An observer was associated with girls to supervise their
work.
● Before each change was introduced, the girls were
consulted.
● They were given opportunity to express their viewpoints
and concerns to the supervisor. In some cases, they were
allowed to take decisions on matters concerning them.
 Normal working conditions

• A forty-eight hour week;

• Six week day including Saturdays;
• No rest pauses;
• The women produced 2,400 relays a
week each.
 Experimental conditions
• Piece-work for eight weeks:
– Output went up.
• Two 5 minute rest pauses, morning and
afternoon, for 5 weeks:
– Output went up once more.
• Rest pauses lengthened to 10 minutes each:
– Output went up sharply.
• Six 5 minute pauses were introduced:
– Output fell slightly (complaints that work rhythm
broken).
 Experimental conditions

• Return to 2 rest pauses, with one

free hot meal supplied by Company:
– Output went up.
• 4.30 pm finish instead of 5.00 pm:
– Output went up.
• 4.00 pm finish:
– Output remained the same.
 Experimental conditions
• Returned to conditions of the
beginning of the experiment:
– Work on Saturday;
– 48 hour week;
– No rest pauses;
– No piece work; and
– No free meal.
• Output was the highest ever
recorded averaging 3000 relays a
week.
 Findings
● Intimate atmosphere of the test room gave them a
sense of freedom not experienced on the factory
floor. They felt more at ease to talk and over time
developed strong friendships
● Six individuals became a team
● The team gave itself wholeheartedly and
spontaneously to cooperation in the experiment
● Participate freely and without afterthought
● Mayo and Roethlisberger’s conclusion that mental
attitudes, proper supervision, and informal social
relationships experienced in a group were key to
productivity and job satisfaction.
 HOWEVER
● Such conclusions were not possible at
time time
● Condition of work in the test room vs in
the plant departments
● Take another look at departments
outside the test room
 Second Phrase - the Interview programme
● the Hawthorne experiments began to incorporate
extensive interviewing.
● The researchers hoped to glean details (such as home life
or relationship with a spouse or parent) that might play a
role in employees’ attitudes towards work and interactions
with supervisors.
● 1928- 1930: 21,000 interviews and worked closely training
researchers in interviewing practices.
● Finding: “informal relationships of interconnectedness”
 Bank wiring observation room
• 1931: 14 men involved in banks of wiring;
• Financial incentive scheme;
• Hourly wage for each worker was fixed on the basis of average
output of each worker.
• Bonus as also payable on the basis of group effort.
• Hypothesis: highly efficient workers would bring pressure on
less efficient workers to increase output and take advantage of
group incentive plan.
• Relations between employees influenced by group dynamics;
• Informal group norms determined output level - less than they
were capable of producing; and
• Conclusion that group or social pressures could be stronger
than financial incentives as a factor in productivity.
 Conclusions from the experiments
• Work is a group activity;
• Informal, primary groups were discovered;
• Groups exert strong influence over individuals;
• Group co operation determines productivity;
• Co operation can be elicited through the special
attention of supervisors;
• Importance for managers of interpersonal skills
as well as skills in control and planning;
• Productivity increases because of social factors.
 The impact
• Shift from emphasis on economic
factors to social and human
factors in organisations;
• Attention to:
– The role of harmony and conflict;
– Human motivation;
– Importance of leadership and
supervisory development.
• Recognition of the 'Hawthorne
effect‘.
 The ‘Human Relations School’
• Emphasis on:
– Productivity based on motivation;
– Job satisfaction;
– Cooperation between supervisors and
workers; and
– Developing both the social and
technical skills of managers.
 The ‘Human Relations School’

● Maslow - The hierarchy of needs

● McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
Summary of human relations conclusions
• Employees are essentially social rather
than economic beings with a variety of
needs
• Informal work groups influence employee
performance
• Trust between managers and workers
improves organisational performance
• Money is not a motivator (though it can
symbolise recognition)
• Both the formal and informal organisation
influence employee behaviour
PuTTING THESE IDEAS INTO PRACTICE
● Job design
Job design is used to structure work in a way that
improves productivity and satisfaction and includes
job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment.
● Relaxation of work rules and group and teamwork as
practices to improve the quality of work life for
workers
 Conclusions
Early management theorists concentrated on two
organisational problems. Designing organisations
that would increase:
1.management control, efficiency and predictability
2.convergence between organisational goals and
human motivations
 Conclusions
These problems were dealt with in two ways:
1. Designing organisations with rules and
structures which governed all relationships
(bureaucracy and scientific management)
and
2. Devising techniques that induce members to
conform to the goals of the organisation
(human relations approaches)