This describes the Human Relations Movement, Hawthorne Studies, concepts of Taylorism. It forms a vital part of the answer for Sociology Questions asked in the university exams. It fetched a grade of 68%.
The Principles of Scientific Management as propagated by Taylor and
further developed by Ford brought out focus to the mechanical aspect of a
job. It taught us how to be more productive economizing various
resources. However, it failed to understand a very vital resource which
clearly is the human resource. In the 1970’s, Gilberth and Gantt tried to
integrate human attitudes and psychlogical needs while managing an
organisation. It was the Hawthorne Studies and Human Relations
Movement that clearly elaborated the topic with subsequent proves and
experiments. It clearly established the correlation between human
resource and efficiency of a firm. It proved that the Taylorian concept of
increasing efficiency by giving only financial gains to the workers is
fallacious.
The period between 1920 and 1930 saw the introduction of Hawthorne
Studies and brought radical changes in organisational behaviour. The
belief of increasing output by increasing wages was disapproved. The
‘Hawthorne Studies’ is a series of industrial experiments conducted at
Western Electric Company near Chicago. The first of the four experiments
of Hawthorne Studies was ‘The Illumination Experiment’ (1924-1927). The
aimed to study the relationship of quality and quantity of illumination to
efficiency and anticipated a positive result. However, no new significant
result was found and it was concluded that lighting was a mere minor
factor. Pennock, a member of the research team called upon Elton Mayo to
help them conduct their experiment – ‘Relay Assembly Experiments’. This
experiment aimed at studying the effects of physical and working
condition of productivity. It was found that there was a positive relation.
The members of the research responded to being treated as a ‘special
group’. The practice of considering their view before taking a managerial
decision had a positive influence on productivity. This tendency of them,
behaving differently because of being observed is ‘Hawthorne Effect’.
After this, an employee attitude survey was conducted to gauge worker
attitudes. It was found that conditions at home, life experiences, social
attitudes had an impact on work as well. One major factor was a positive
work environment where the supervisor showed interest in them. The
concept of ‘relationships with people’ & ‘dynamism of work group’ came
into being. After this, a ‘Bauk Wiring Room’ experiment was conducted to
understand the operations of informal groups on primary work groups.
When 14 men were divided into 3 formal groups, 2 informal groups or
‘cliques’ formed by itself, each with an unelected leader. This clique had a
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