“The Humans Relations theory – Mayo”;
This essay will be examining The Humans Relations theory, which was founded by Mayo. His findings outlined the effect that a manager’s care for their employees can positively impact them and their work, also being considered to be the "more evolved" approach in management. Mayo found that by managers taking a greater interest and consideration into their employees, this lead them to feel more valued, motivated and encouraged. This essay will also be examining Taylor’s widely practiced "scientific management theory" and to identify reason and evidence as to how or why this theory would fall into an ‘old fashioned’ and ‘less evolved’ approach to management.
Scientific management theory is considered to aim to improve an organisation’s efficiency using systematical methods in order to overcome everyday tasks (Caldari 2007). Taylor based this theory on four key principles.
Firstly, it was believed that scientific management allowed managers to collect information, refine and analyse it, and to condense it to a collection of laws, rules or analytical formulas. Secondly, Taylor argued that there is the idea that managers should thoroughly select and train workers with a scientific basis and method, meaning that they should allocate workers to the most suitable position to ensure that they will be able to perform to the best of their ability. Furthermore, it is believed that managers should make sure that their scientific methods are not only useful to the workers but also be useful for them, meaning that there should be thorough supervision to ensure that the workers are committing to their jobs in a scientific manner. Taylor’s fourth principle is the idea that managers will need to evenly distribute work and tasks between employees as well as themselves.
Managers should be able to design these scientific management practices and the workers should carry out those tasks. This method of training and working is referred to as Taylorism as it emphasised the significance of the collaboration between managers and their employees and in developing successful results and organisational goals.
Focusing on the benefits of scientific management, all of the above principles will have a positive and organised impact on an organisation and is a goal that serves the common interests of employees, employers and greater society. Advantages of scientific management include having a systematic approach, which would lead to high levels of quality and standard. In addition, it is argued that the scientific management theory that is convenient for organisations as it is used as a form of innovation. For example, Chongping (2011) argued that the Chinese catering industry in the city of Chongqing was required to adjust and enhance its management in order to cut down expenses, develop scale economy while still achieving targets due to the rapid growth of the industry. It was found that scientific management was the most ideal form of innovation as it resulted in successful chain management, promotion and selection and allocation of talent.
The Humans Relations Theory outlines the effect that a manager’s care for their employees can positively impact them and their work. Mayo found that by managers taking a greater interest and consideration into their employees, this lead them to feel more valued, motivated and encouraged. As well as employee empowerment, he found that employees usually perform to a higher standard when they are working in groups as well as them being consulted more frequently. Many sociologists would agree that individual employee attention and recognition corresponds with performance and the overall theory. Furthermore, it is argued that the theory of motivation which is within the Humans Relation Theory is supported greatly by theorists and managers in times of it being developed as well as modern times and is considered a "more evolved" approach than using scientific management.
The findings of Mayo were found from the conduction of the Hawthorne studies which revealed the idea that motivational theory directly linked to human relation as well as productivity having a direct correlation with relationships. Results found that with a more supportive group that had significant rapport, productivity was increasing and bettering. As to the scientific management theory, human relations theory adjusts the emphasis according to different tasks and different workers, therefore not allowing workers to be "machine-like", which Taylor was criticised for doing (Locke 1982) but instead, allow them to build and develop their own skills that they think will positively contribute to their performance. Moreover, contrasting to scientific management, this theory focuses larger on two-way communication instead of having managers give directions to their employees and there is a social relationship that is developed by a two-way communication. In addition to that, some would argue that the theory focuses ahead of physical attributes and focuses more on individuality, creativity and emotional aspects of employees and their satisfactory level of their employment. This refers to the idea of employees having the ability to communicate openly, provide suggestions, produce complaints if need be, and express their feelings in order to increase productivity.
Many sociologists argue that this approach is considered to be more successful as they believe that it is vital for managers to interest themselves in the social well-being and morale of their employees, because this in turn will lead to a successful team, thus a successful organization (Dickson 1939). Many would argue that although the motivation theory is very modern and effective, work is still considered to be a social as well as economic activity, therefore, motivation, targets and goals are still required to be structured accordingly. In addition to that, some sociologists argue that communication is indeed a vital tool to empowered employees. However, there is still a need for managers to be able to establish systems to communicate, consult and support the workplace and that a fully informal organisation may not be entirely productive as it still requires managing in order for there to be a consistency with the formal purposes of an organisation.
Scientific management was the most ideal form of innovation and management as it resulted in successful chain management, promotion, selection and allocation of talent and manpower reservation. However, looking at how the Human Relation theory is considered to be the "more evolved" approach to management, some would argue that this theory would be considered to be substantively rational due to the idea that many problems in an organisation can be solved by considering morals and values. With this theory, there is more of a qualitative approach to the relationship between an employer and their employee, which supports the concept of it being a more appropriate approach to management.
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