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HUMAN RELATIONS THEORY: IMPLICATIONS FOR EFFECTIVE HUMAN

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 Ilorin Journal of Human Resource Management (IJHRM) Vol.5, No.1, 2021

HUMAN RELATIONS THEORY: IMPLICATIONS FOR EFFECTIVE HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT

Samuel Ayodeji OMOLAWAL, PhD

Department of Sociology,
Faculty of the Social Sciences,
University of Ibadan,Ibadan Nigeria
shomolawal@gmail.com / https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8023-5306

Abstract
Organisations are becoming more conscious of the fact that in surviving the increasingly harsh and
competitive business environment in the contemporary world, all organisational resources must be fully
harnessed, utilized and managed for attainment of organisational goals. More particularly, greater
attention is being placed on the human resource element of organisational resources as the ultimate
determinant of the success of organisations, hence the need for effective management of this important
resource. This conceptual paper argues that effective and good management of the human resources is
hinged on the basic understanding of the nature of workers first as human beings with peculiarities and
that such an understanding can only be possible with the adequate knowledge of the basic tenets and
contributions of the human relations theory pioneered by Elton Mayo. The paper argues further that this
theory has implications for effective human resource management in areas such as understanding the
nature of human beings, workers’ motivation, importance of leadership, role of informal groups, and
effective communication in the workplace. The paper concludes that the human relations theory forms the
bedrock of, and provides the theoretical foundation for effective human resource management in
organisations.

Keywords: Human Relations, Human Resource, Human Resource Management, Motivation, Leadership

1.0 Introduction
Effective management of human resources has become crucial for organisations in the current dispensation.
According to Ogunbameru (2008), increased levels of competitiveness across the globe have conditioned
all firms to the fact that they must utilise their resources much better than ever before. In recent years, it has
become widely accepted that it is not organisational strategies that promote business growth but the persons
who develop and implement such strategies. This fact has drawn attention to “intellectual capital or human
resource” as the greatest asset any enterprise could have. Therefore, what is becoming indispensable and
inevitable is a business enterprise’s capability to effectively manage its human resources to help identify
and utilise their natural potentials and free such natural endowments for the critical tasks of creating,
sustaining and driving designed winning strategies. More than ever before, business organisations today
are developing human resource management systems and practices needed to develop their core
competencies and generate income and profit growth (Osinbajo & Adeniji, 2012).

However, effective Human Resource Management (HRM) is hinged on the basic understanding of
man/workers considered the essential resource organisations can boast of. Scholars have identified human
relations theory as the foundational basis for effective management of human resources in organisations.
Effective human resource management requires a fundamental knowledge and understanding of the
primary issues affecting workplace workers and managing such matters to get the best out of them. Many
employers and leaders treat their workers as ordinary working tools, which hinders their ability and
willingness to put in their very best. When this happens, the organisational performance may be affected
(Aswathappa, 2014; Okafor, Imhonopi & Obor, 2020). It is against this background that this paper

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 Human Relations Theory: Implications for Effective Human Resource Management

examines the theory of human relations and its implications for the effective management of human
resources in organisations in general. Specifically, it provides answers to the following research questions:
why is motivation important to workers? How do workers fare in the face of relationships with others?
How do leaders and leadership styles affect workers’ job performance? These and other questions
constitute the body of knowledge upon which effective management is built in the workplace.

2.0 Literature Review

Emergence Of Human Relations Theory
The emergence of human relations theory is traced to the emergence of the factory system of work
following the 18th and 19th centuries’ industrial revolutions. These remarkable revolutions in world history
resulted in economic activities such as agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport and technology. These
consequently affected people’s social, economic, and cultural conditions beginning from the United
Kingdom, which later spread to other parts of the world. The beginning of these revolutions marked a
major turning point in the history of mankind as nearly all aspects of daily life were eventually influenced,
one way or the other. Most observably, average incomes of the people and the population started to show
sustained growth, like never before. In two centuries after 1800, the world’s average income shot up many
folds, while the world’s population also increased geometrically (Maddison, 2003; Okafor & Obor, 2020).
This was clearly expressed by Robert E. Lucas, Jr. (Nobel Prize winner) as follows: “For the first time in
history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth. ...
Nothing remotely like this economic behaviour has happened before” (Lucas, 2002: 110)

Following a series of mechanical inventions and their application for industrial purposes, many sections of
the previously manual labour and draft-animal–based economy in Great Britain began shifting towards
machine-based processes. It commenced with the mechanisation of textile industries, new iron-making
techniques, and the increase in refined coal use. The introduction of canals, improved railways and roads
promoted trade expansions. There were increases in the adoption of steam power hitherto fuelled by coal,
increased utilisation of water wheels and machine-powered machinery in the textile sector. The
development of all-metal machine equipment promoted the production of more machines for use in other
industries. The effects of all these dramatic and unprecedented new technologies spread across the globe, a
process that continued as industrialisation (Beck 1999; Okafor & Obor, 2020)

One of the most profound consequences of the industrial revolution was the emergence of the factory
system of work and wage-earning. The dominant mode of work was the familial work arrangement, where
work arrangement was woven around the family. The new work method involved setting industries and
employing people from different families to enable the factory owners to run the new plants and machines.
Consequently, it had implications for the workers, families, management/business owners, and society. For
instance, such Owner-managers had no practical experience in managing large scale production. Neither
did they have experience in handling workers, so the options left to them were the use of force/coercion and
intimidation or adoption of paternalistic management styles (Hodgetts, 2002). On their part, workers never
worked under such a formal arrangement where they were subjected to others’ control and supervision and
had no hand in decisions that affected them or how they were to work; neither were they entitled to their
efforts. Problems consequently started manifesting in absenteeism, sabotage, output restrictions, industrial
conflicts, class consciousness and so on, hence the emergence of various theoretical attempts to bring about
the more effective organisation of work and workers. One of such classical theories was the human
relations theory pioneered by Elton Mayo (1953).

The school of human relations emerged due to the shortcomings of the scientific management of Frederick
Taylor (1911), who had earlier on approached his task rationally/ scientifically. The scientific management
school was mechanistic and divorced the human factor from work, concentrating on work alone. The

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 Ilorin Journal of Human Resource Management (IJHRM) Vol.5, No.1, 2021

school failed to understand the human element in the work situation; however, it paved the way for others
to approach organisations’ study. Professor Elton Mayo pioneered human relations with his work referred
to as the Hawthorne studies conducted for several years at Hawthorne Plant of Western Electric Company
based in Chicago, United States of America.

Mayo and his team were hired to study an electric company based in Chicago, Western Electric Company,
due to their observation on reduced productivity and output restriction. Initially, the company had adopted
Taylorism elements that worked for them, but after some time, organisational output dropped, hence Mayo
and his team’s invitation. The team employed experimental methods and conducted what is now referred to
as Hawthorne Studies. The studies, which began in 1924, were in different stages: They started by trying to
determine the possible relationships between productivity and levels of lighting/illumination; productivity
and length and frequency of rest periods; productivity and the value of monetary incentives, among others.
The results were not conclusive, and their findings revealed no relationships between productivity and these
variables.

Next was the Telephone Relay Assembly, where many women were involved as workers. The team had
verbal interviews and discussions with the female workers. The experiment involved showing sincere
interests in the workers as human beings, asking for their comments and suggestions about their works.
Based on the personal interests shown on the workers in the course of the studies, production increased.
They concluded that the social-relational factor is essential in the question of productivity. Onyeonoru
(2005), by getting the workers involved in the work decision and asking for their help and cooperation-
with the implicit sense of recognition, belonging and security, their attitudes got transformed from that of
solitary workers or separate cogs in a machine to that of dependable workgroup involved in finding
solutions to the problems of the organisation.

Consequent upon the Telephone Relay Assembly section’s success, the team proceeded to the Bank Wiring
Room to investigate workers’ attitudes towards their work and their behaviour as informal workgroup
members. They discovered that workers devised their own rules, norms and regulations different from
management rules and that workers used those rules to define a fair day’s work rather than the standard set
by management (Hodgetts, 2002). Some of the informal work norms and rules are summarised thus:

i. If you produce too much work, you will be labelled a rate buster
ii. If you produce too little work, you will be labelled a chiseller
iii. If you report your colleagues to a supervisor, you will become a squealer

These informal or self-imposed rules were not documented, but they were as influential in determining
efficiency and performance as much as the management’s formal rules. The workers successfully used
these informal group norms to restrict output and limit the work units’ performance. According to Hodgetts
(2002), a lot of conclusions could be drawn from the Hawthorne studies. These included the following:
Organisations do not just introduce formal structures and processes in which subordinates report to
superiors; they also comprise social networks where people interact, seek acceptance, and give approval to
fellow workers; informal groups exist and have an influence on productivity; people have the tendency to
act in different ways if and when they know they are being watched; the type and pattern of supervision
have effects on the quality and quantity of work done. It is from here that the human relations theory
emerged. The theory expanded steadily from the 1940s, focusing on man’s nature and what constitutes
satisfaction, especially in the workplace. With the works of subsequent scholars such as Maslows
(Hierarchy of Needs, 1943), Herzberg’s (two-factor theory 1959), McGregor (theories Y and Z 1960),
Blake and Mouton (Managerial Grid 1968), Victor Vroom (Expectancy theory 1964), Porter and Lawler
(Operant Reinforcement), Alderfer (ERG theory 1972), McClelland (Needs theory of Motivation 1953),

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 Human Relations Theory: Implications for Effective Human Resource Management

Likert’s (Leadership Continuum 1961) and other neo-human relations theories, evidence has emerged to
support the view that man is a social being and is motivated by affective needs, and that organisations are
not merely economic units but are also social units for workers to interact.

The human relations theory consists of various scholars who believe that the key to organisational
efficiency lies in recognising and appreciating the human factor as an important force in work relations.
They posit that management involves getting things done with and through people; therefore, the study of
the subject matter must be centred on interpersonal relations. There is a need to understand them and
motivate them to manage the workers effectively. The human relations theory has led to an enhanced
emphasis on problems of human beings in worker- management process, increased emphasis on seeking
cooperation through acceptance and consensus, and not merely through issuing orders, and emphasis on
effective communication (Sofer, cited in Oribabor, 2008; Babatunde, 2020).

Human Resource Management

Before the industrial revolution, the relationship between apprentices learning a trade and their masters or
mentors was informal and personal to the extent that masters/mentees were responsible for their
apprentices’ welfare matters. There was no paid employment; neither were there formal methods of
managing workers. So the apprentices enjoyed and shared both good times and bad times with their
masters. However, this informal arrangement was brought to an end by the introduction of paid
employment. The idea of work moved from home shops to factories, and rudimentary forms of people’s
management emerged.

At this time, the management philosophy was decipherable in Henry Ford’s views that all those workers
needed to bring to work were their hands and feet and not their heads. This suggests that workers were only
expected to carry out menial positions and not use their brains in the new work organisations. Work was
seen as more important than the workers. The production rate was more important than the workers. Early
professionals in charge of staff matters had the major objective of protecting the business at the workers’
expense. Employers believed that workers would accept more rigid standards if this would lead to extra
pay. Consequently, they adopted rigid standards to promote the workers’ efficiency and, invariably, their
organisations’ productivity. This served as the foundation upon which scientific management approaches
led by Frederick W. Taylor grew. This approach’s limitations were hinged on the fact that man/workers
cannot be managed mechanistically and that there has to be greater interest in workers as human beings and
as social beings. This led to other perspectives such as the administrative school of thought, the human
relations school of thought, etc. More fundamentally, this marked a more refined beginning of Human
Resource Management in organisations. Therefore, HRM has grown from a rudimentary start and has
become an indispensable tool for organisations’ success and productivity.

Ogunbameru (2008) defines Human Resource Management as the strategic and coherent approach to
managing an organisation’s most valued assets - people working there who individually and collectively
contribute to achieving the business’s objectives. The term “Human Resource Management” has, to a great
extent, been adopted as a replacement and preferable term than “personnel management”, which is a
description of the processes of managing people in organisations. Personnel Management is applied in a
more restricted sense to describe supporting activities carried out to attract the workforce and provide its
members with their work-life needs in the contemporary world. Simultaneously, human resource
management is a more embracing concept that has replaced personnel management’s narrower conception.
Adopting and emphasising the new concept show an increasing focus on human beings’ importance in
contemporary organisations.

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 Ilorin Journal of Human Resource Management (IJHRM) Vol.5, No.1, 2021

The theoretical and pragmatic description of HRM as a functional activity is mainly based on the
assumption that workers are individuals with identifiable and justifiable goals, needs, and priorities.
Therefore, they should not be thought of as business resources or working tools, such as tables and filing
cabinets. Oni (2003) argues that HRM takes a robust positive view of employees, assuming that almost all
wish and are willing to contribute productively to the enterprise. The main problems to their endeavours are
inadequate knowledge, inadequate training, and process failures. Therefore, more broadly, HRM is
considered the range of policies necessary to source for candidates whose experience, skill, and attitude are
indispensable and vital for organisations’ operations. It covers a range of policies and practices having
strategic importance for the organisation and which are tactically used to promote integration, staff
commitment, flexibility and good life-quality as well as a means to meet better business goals, including
dynamic organisational values, structure and service delivery mechanisms (Adefuye, 2003). The
indispensability of the human factor in organisations cannot be over-emphasised because, in all activities of
the organisation, human effort is the key and engine; it is human knowledge, transformed into a movement
that gives value or utility to organisational outcomes (Aimiuwu, 1997; Olabode, 2017).

Furthermore, HRM is a people-centred activity, an activity in which organisational managers try to provide
and ensure the necessary conditions, processes and atmosphere needed to influence the people’s
effectiveness, i.e. workers in the organisation. This is because there is so much competitive advantage
achievable through employees (Ikwuka, 2016). Some of the reasons for maintaining effective HRM in
organisations include the following:

a. It enhances management’s ability to achieve organisational objectives through the labour force;
b. It provides opportunities for workers to utilise their full potential and capacity;
c. It fuels commitment from workers to the success of the organisation through their performance;
d. It establishes an environment needed to unleash the potentials and energy of employees;
e. It creates the conditions and environment where innovation, teamwork and total quality can be
guaranteed;
f. It encourages the willingness to operate flexibly in the organisation’s overall interest and focus on
the pursuit of a culture of excellence.

The contemporary human resource function has developed into a science of human engineering. HRM
practitioners are now developing more systematic and strategic policies to transform the work environment
to contribute to their highest potential. In effect, this is extending the horizon and perspectives of general
management practices. With the current waves of technology and the application and integration of
management information system being witnessed, HRM is tapping into these new waves for excellent
service delivery and cost reduction (Torrington, 2005; Ogunbameru, 2008). Effective HRM refers to a
process where minimum effort is used to achieve maximum results in the cause of getting workers to do a
job. When workers willingly associate themselves with the expected organisational goals by doing what is
expected of them accurately. It is a process of doing what is right and doing right what is expected of
workers. Effective human resource management is enhanced by the formulation and implementation of
good HR policies, which create and maintain a balance between concern for the people and concern for the
organisation (Strangleman, 2015). According to Agun (2011), human resource policy refers to the guides
for making administrative decisions, especially on human resource management; it is an internal
administrative law governing executive actions concerning workers within the organisation.

Implications of Human Relations Theory for Effective Human Resource Management

A major implication of the human relations theory is that it provides foundational knowledge on the
importance of the human side of enterprise by showing what makes people work. The theory contends that
economic rationality is a poor and inadequate explanation of human behaviour at work. According to
Onyeonoru (2005), despite the limitations of the theory, its significance for the industrial organisation is

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 Human Relations Theory: Implications for Effective Human Resource Management

that human beings should be treated first as rational beings rather than as machines. Workplace policy
needs to embrace employees’ social and relational needs. Managing people in general, and in organisations
in particular, is a complex and problematic activity because people, whether as individuals or members of
social groups, do not embrace and take automatically as their own the goals and interests of the work
organisations that employ them. Individuals often have their aspirations, interests, and expectations to
satisfy or want to meet their work-life in the organisation. The ability to identify the needs and aspirations
and harmonise them with the organisation’s needs and objectives constitutes a challenge for the HR
practitioners. Oni (2003) and Strangleman (2015) argue that effective human resource management is
based on taking cognisance of individual and group dynamics in the work situation and that employees
must be treated as permanent and social partners rather than temporary, dispensable and unappreciated
individuals, as a source of on-going improvement in organisational productivity as well as trained and
developed continuously to support the desired competitive advantages. Based on the foregoing, the human
relations theory provides the necessary foundation for understanding workers as humans who have
emotions and feelings; humans who, as individuals or groups, respond to stimuli and make rational choices
and decisions.

The theory also implies that human resource management provides an insight into the understanding of the
motivation to increase workers’ efficiency. According to Onyeonoru (2005), motivation is a factor that
energises, directs and sustains human behaviour. It is an internal process, a psychological process that can
be seen from an observed performance. From the findings of various human relations and neo-human
relations theorists, it has been established that humans, as workers, have five fundamental needs in
organisational settings. Financial rewards relate to monetary/non-monetary, tangible/non-tangible things;
job security; job satisfaction; the future; and respect and trust. To Alos (2002), people have these basic
needs in common, but these needs are present in different people’s intensities. Omolawal (2017) adds that
adequate knowledge of motivational issues becomes indispensable for effective human resources
management. This will involve the processes of knowledge about what motivates workers at various times
in their organisational life, including extrinsic and intrinsic needs, their plan for the future, jobs that provide
satisfaction and respect for them as human beings. Effective human resource management is hinged on the
understanding of and ability to manage the motivational issues to use them as instruments to get the best
out of workers (Akinsanya & Oludeyi, 2020).

The theory increases the knowledge of the importance of informal groups and social relations in the
workplace. According to Ogunbameru (2008), an informal group is an organisation not created by the
organisational managers but a spontaneous overgrowth of interaction among formal groups. Hodgetts
(2002) calls this social networking a socialising process, politicking and interacting with people throughout
the organisation. It is usually created by choice for the furtherance of the goals which are defined by the
group, that is, the group goals. Informal groups arise as people associate with one another and to perpetuate
themselves and to continue to meet the needs of the members; informal groups adopt some characteristics,
which include: standards of behaviour, pressures to conform, informal leadership, status systems etc.
Informal groups have lots of benefits, including getting results, reducing managerial loads, providing job
satisfaction, and providing feedback for administrative decisions. On the other hand, it could lead to
resistance to change, create goal conflict and promote rumour-mongering (Duru, 2017; Lawal, 2017).
Therefore, for effective and successful management of workers, there is a need to recognise the
inevitability and accept the existence of these informal groups, understand their characteristics, influence
their direction, and use them to enhance individual performance for organisational goals.

The theory brings to understanding leadership role and importance in organisations and how leadership
transfers to successful management of employees. Adefuye (2003) argues that the complexity and
challenge of the leadership process can only be unearthed if the interaction dynamics between leaders and

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 Ilorin Journal of Human Resource Management (IJHRM) Vol.5, No.1, 2021

their follower are duly considered. Therefore, to him, leadership depends, to a great extent, on interactional
and relational contexts, including how employees see the performance of the leaders, their approach, and
the expectations both of and from the followers. According to Adefuye (2003), there are five major
components of leadership, namely: abilities to inspire, to get things done, to build relationships, to
communicate and; to delegate. In its true sense, leadership is so strong and vital that it gives direction,
focus and pace to the workforce and empowers them. When people in the organisation are empowered,
they feel important and are pulled rather than pushed towards attaining organisational objectives. Effective
HRM is based on realising the power and effect of leadership on workers to get the best out of them. It
involves ensuring the right leaders’ availability occupying the right positions, and exhibiting the right
leadership styles suitable for different occasions (Lawal, 2017; Babatunde, 2020).

Lastly, the human relations theory brings to the fore the need for effective communication with workers in
the workplace. Communication is a process whereby people are linked and influenced to achieve a
common and desired purpose. Sharing necessary information for action is a two-way process and a
powerful tool the manager has for developing and sustaining a smoothly functioning work team. According
to Adegboyega (2003), effective communication serves as a basis for effective human resource
management. Both formal and informal channels must be adopted to pass the appropriate information to
workers, and that workers too should have the opportunity to pass across their data. This way, they are not
ignorant of relevant information, but instead, they become more motivated. Effective communication
means the manager has to inform, influence and activate others (Alos, 2002). Naturally, workers as rational
human beings wish to know what happens around them, and the information they receive goes a long way
to affect how well they are managed. They are, therefore, continually looking for information (Omolawal,
2016). The implication of this is that effective human resource management is hinged on adequate
communication with employees, not only on issues that affect them personally but also on matters affecting
their work. By providing sufficient and timely information down the chain of authority and by providing
structures for upward communications, human resource practitioners are more able to manage this all-
important asset.

3.0 Conclusion
From the issues raised above, it is evident that human relations theory has made significant contributions to
and forms the foundational basis for effective human resource management by harping the importance of
the human factor in organisational success. Effective human resource practice entails full knowledge of
man in the workplace, his interactions with leaders and colleagues at both formal and informal levels and
organisational issues capable of motivating the worker towards higher productivity. The theory provides an
insight into the nature and characteristics of human beings, which need to be understood, manipulated and
utilised to get the best out of people. Organisational leaders are therefore challenged to be fully
knowledgeable about the tenets of the human relations theory and those factors common to people so that
they can be more easily managed in the process of achieving organisational goals and objectives.

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