...Question 2: Elton Mayo’s landmark 1930’s research into worker’s behaviour was later criticised by Daniel Bell and other sociologists. What lessons can Singapore businesses learn from Mayo and his later detractors? George Elton Mayo (1880-1949) was an Australian psychologist, sociologist and organizational theorist. He led a team together with Whitehead and Roethlisberger, set to study the relationship between productivity and physical working conditions. His research results have led to the establishing of new theories like the human relation (Hawthorne) and motivation theory. The Hawthorne study, a new approach that is being introduced by the sociologist, has been called the human relation approach of management. This approach was generated, because the positive aspect of the variables of the scientific management, and the focuses on mechanical and psychological variables, could not bring about a positive response in work behavior and efficiency at work. The key contributions are contained into two points; organizational situation to be viewed in social, economic and technical terms; and the social process of group behavior which can be studied in clinical method analogous. These studies have a historical importance to the behavioral approach of the analysis of management problems. The practical experiments allowed Elton Mayo to deduce the importance of groups in affecting the behavior of individuals at work. Physical conditions or financial incentives had little motivational...
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...Do the Hawthorne Studies truly deserve to be recognised as producing a fundamental change in the development of management thought? The Hawthorne Studies were a set of studies carried out by Western Electric between 1924 and 1932 in conjunction with researchers from the Harvard Business School, led by Elton Mayo, at their Hawthorne Works plant (Sonnenfeld 1985 p. 112). Researchers initially set out to find the effects of lighting upon levels of production, but ultimately the evidence gathered lead to a significant shift in management thought: from Scientific Management to Human Relations (Hassard 2012 p. 1432). The methods of the studies and their originality have been censured by some scholars, some of whom feel this invalidates the findings and therefore the significance of the studies, but, despite their flaws, it is impossible to deny the far reaching influence of these studies upon the development of management thought. Scientific management was developed by Frederick Taylor to improve industrial efficiency (Taylor 1911), it was this theory of management which Western Electric was using to direct their employees at the time the Hawthorne Studies commenced. Some of the key principles of the theory were: that managers should scientifically determine how a task should be completed most efficiently and; that managers should then select the best person for the job, train them to do their tasks efficiently, and monitor performance to ensure these specifications are met (Law...
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...Assignment The Implication of Hawthorne Study in 21st Century Ashab Anis Joy ID: 2012-1-10-255 Class: MGT Course Code: 101 Sec: 7 Semester: Fall East West University Bachelor of Business Administration East West University 20th November 2012 Introduction The Hawthorne Experiments were conducted between 1927 and 1932 at the works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. Basically the aim of these experiments was to ” attempt to reduce worker dissatisfaction and resist trade union influence by the putting in place of a paternalistic package of social and recreational benefits calculated to sustain workers “loyalty” (Sheldrake 105:1996). Many little assignments were conducted in hope of putting into practice the above theory. Despite the economic progress brought about in party by Scientific Management, critics were calling attention to the severe labour/management conflict, apathy, boredom, and wasted human resources. These concerns lead a number of researchers to examine the discrepancy between how an organisation was supposed to work versus how the workers actually behaved. In addition, factors like World War I, developments in psychology (e.g. Freud) and later the depression, all brought into question some of the basic assumptions of the Scientific Management School. One of the primary critics of the time, Elton Mayo, claimed that this ‘alienation’ stemmed from the breakdown of the social structures caused by industrialisation, the factory system, and its related...
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...psychological schools and finally to modern approach to management. The individuals involved during the evolution of management are Frederick Winslow Taylor, Henri Fayol, Max Weber, and Elton Mayo. F. W. Taylor and Henri Fayol developed classical theories and were concerned with the arrangement and performance of a formal organisation. Max Weber developed a structure of organization known as bureaucracy. Weber developed six characteristics of bureaucracy as followed below: 1. Rules created by management, management will direct the lower levels of the organization by using in a steady and expected approach. 2. Separation of labour, each job is specified with different responsibilities and authority. 3. Hierarchical arrangement, each and every organization has a hierarchy of power. The top level staff gives direction to middle level staff and the middle level staff gives direction to the lower level staff. 4. Hired on the basis of his or her technical ability, depending on an individual’s technical ability an appointment to a position within the organization can be made. 5. Managers are salaried officials 6. Written documents Elton Mayo who believed that people’s needs are crucial factors in achieving organisational effectiveness. Mayo was involved in the...
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...ELTON MAYO The psychologist, sociologist and an organization theorist who was known as the founder of the Human Relations Movement Sir Elton Mayo was born in Adelaide, South Australia on 26 December 1880 and died in Guildford, Surrey on 1st September 1949. Elton was expected to follow his grandfather into medicine, but failed at university studies and was sent to Britain. Here he turned to writing, wrote on Australian politics for the Pall Mall Gazette and taught at the Working Men's College in London.Mayo taught philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, economics, education and the new psychology of Freud,Jung and especially Pierre Janet. From the beginning he trained himself in public speaking, and became an outstanding lecturer. He spoke at Worker's Education Association classes and tutorials, and addressed unions and professional bodies. Human Relations Movement basically is the study of the behavior of people in groups, particularly in workplace groups and for his research including the Hawthorne Studies which examined the effects of social relations, motivation and employee satisfaction. In 1927, a group of researchers led by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger of the Harvard Business School were invited to join in the studies at the Hawthorne Works of Western Electric Company, Chicago. Elton Mayo and his associates conducted their studies in the Hawthorne plant of the western electrical company, U.S.A., between 1927 and 1930.The experiments that he conducted were Illumination...
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...The Hawthorne Studies; conducted in 1927 to 1932 by Elton Mayo, has been revered in the fields of psychology and management respectively. Both have derived various lessons from different aspects of the study. For example, the field of psychology looks at the affects that working in a form of an exclusive group has as presented in the Relay Assembly Test Room experiment. Management on the other hand has learned that the human psyche has varying effects on their productivity and are not merely drones driven by a single goal. (Hai, 2011) However, many criticise the relevance and contributions of the Hawthorne Studies to the studies of work and organizations. Criticisms sprouted from the results of the studies conducted which were; for the majority, inconclusive and hence being unreliable. The fact that those making these statements are ignoring is that; many management theories wouldn’t have been developed without these studies. Before the time of the Hawthorne Studies, management viewed their workers as simple drones in the company who do as they were told without question. To cut cost whilst maintaining production levels, companies would subject longer working hours and lower wages under considerably poor working conditions in order to maximise their profit. They did so because they believed the workers would continue production regardless similar to machines. When scientific management was introduced in the early twentieth century by Frederick Taylor, a huge shift in managerial...
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...Explain the Hawthorne Studies. The “Hawthorne Effect” is when people change their behaviour when they notice that they are being monitored. This was first thought of by Elton Mayo (1880 – 1949), who is also the inventor of the human relations school which, says that any business or an organization which wants to maximize their productivity must ensure that the workers of that organization are fully satisfied. It also says that the management should allow the workers to be a part of the decision making process of the organization, as this will make the workers feel that they have some part to play in the organization. The Hawthorne Studies are known today as the human relations school. The Hawthorne Studies were a series of experiments which were conducted by Elton Mayo and his team over a five year period between 1927 and 1932 at the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric company in Chicago. Mayo believed that working environment and working conditions like lighting, heating, rest periods, incentive schemes, hours of work and so on had a significant effect on the workers productivity. During the five year period many experiments were undertaken in an attempt to create the perfect working environment and condition. Basically there were two groups in one group no changes were made. The working conditions remained the same. In the other group the working conditions were altered. Both the groups were observed. In one scenario as the heating and the other conditions were changed...
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...The Hawthorne Studies, researched by Elton Mayo, was conducted from 1924 to 1927. These experiments were conducted at Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago and included the examination of productivity and work conditions among segregated employees. In this experiment, Mayo segregated six female employees from the rest of their co-workers at Western Electric and utilized such variables as rest breaks, work hours, temperature, and humidity with the thought that adjusting these variables from time to time would result in higher and/or lower productivity respectively. Additionally, Mayo gave the women a friendly “observer” supervisor rather than someone who was a disciplinarian. He made frequent changes in their work conditions, but always communicated these changes to the women in advance so that they were aware prior to the occurrence. Such changes included change of hours in the work week, work day and the number of rest breaks offered and the time of the lunch hour. During the experiment, the women were frequently asked for their feedback as changes occurred. The women became a team that gave of themselves wholeheartedly and spontaneously to cooperation in the experiment. The results of this experiment and the affect on organizational theory showed that employees are motivated far more by relational factors such as attention and camaraderie than by monetary rewards or environmental factors such as lighting, humidity, etc. “Evidence showed that interpersonal relationships...
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...KEY FINDINGS AND PROFILE OF HAWTHORE STUDIES 1.0 Introduction In the early twentieth century, Elton Mayo, a famous professor of industrial management from Harvard, carried out studies at the Western Electric company’s Hawthorne works, As Jiao(2009) said “with the attempt to find the factors affecting workers’ productivity, the studies included a series of behavior experiments” which was then called as “Hawthorne Experiments”. Regardless of some controversies, conclusions from the studies not only help Mayo extended his own theory in management, but also give loads of enlightenment to other fields (such as educations、sociology 、organizational behavior, etc.) This essay will show the key findings of Hawthorne studies as well as its repercussions in many fields. In the first section, operations and conclusions of each experiment will be simply introduced. Secondly, a series of new ideas originated from these findings by Mayo will be elaborated and also its applications in practice. The final part is to show some criticism on both Mayo’s research method and his theory. 2.1 Experiment One ---------Illumination studies During 1924 to 1927, Mayo’s group tested a department’s productivity under all levels of illumination in order to discover the effects of light on efficiency. However, they ended in failure for there were almost always increasing output during the process. (But, latter it was considered as an evidence of Hawthorne Effect) 2.2 Experiment Two ------- Relay...
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...management functions and the employer-employee relationship? Bramel’s theories on the Hawthorne Studies help to inform my understanding of contemporary management functions and the employer-employee relationship by providing a critical analysis of the Hawthorne Studies, which were a major contributor in the development of management practices and the human relations movement. The Hawthorne Studies were a group of experiments undertaken in the 1920's and 1930's at Western Electrics Hawthorne Plant that provided new insights into individual and group behaviours. The study was lead be George Elton Mayo, he concluded that individual and group behaviour are closely related. Mayo concluded that social standards in the workplace were a greater factor in determining the production output of individuals then other factors such as money and environmental factors. The results of the Hawthorne studies are widely disputed due to mismanagement and corruption of some of the experiments. Bramel highlights the corrupted elements of the experiments, particularly the removal and replacement of participants mid experiment, and holds the studies in a negative light. Bramel is not the only one to cast doubt on the validity of the experiments however, there have been many opponents to the hawthorn studies’ findings over the years. Alex Carey was one of the most vocal opponents of the validity of the Hawthorne studies’ findings. Carey was particularly vocal on the dismissal and replacement of experiment...
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...workplace efficiency was emphasized as well as the standardization of tasks and assignments. The father of the “Scientific Management Theory” is Frederick Winslow Taylor. It is also referred to as “Taylorism.” Frederick Taylor sought to expand productivity by increasing the efficiency of the worker. He believed that the worker and management shared a common interest to increase productivity, therefore improving profits. As an engineer of a US steel company, Taylor conducted studies and observed various tasks, finding the most effective way for each task to be accomplished. These were known as his Time and Motion Studies (NetMBA). He would use a stopwatch and time a worker's sequence of motions, examining the outcome of each task. Taylor condensed his observations into four principles he believed should be used and followed: Taylor's Four Principles of Scientific Management: 1. Replace working by "rule of thumb," or simple habit and common sense, and instead use the scientific method to study work...
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...The Hawthorne effect (also referred to as the observer effect is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed. The original research at the Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois, on lighting changes and work structure changes such as working hours and break times were originally interpreted by Elton Mayo and others to mean that paying attention to overall worker needs would improve productivity. Later interpretations such as that done by Landsberger suggested that the novelty of being research subjects and the increased attention from such could lead to temporary increases in workers' productivity. This interpretation was dubbed "the Hawthorne effect". Introduction Elton Mayo’s team conducted a number of experiments involving six female workers. These experiments are often referred to as the Hawthorne experiments or Hawthorne studies as they took place at The Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. Hawthorne Experiment Details Over the course of five years, Mayo’s team altered the female worker’s working conditions and monitored how the change in working conditions affected the workers morale and productivity. The changes in working conditions included changes in working hours, rest brakes, lighting, humidity, and temperature. The changes were explained to the workers prior to implementation. Hawthorne Experiment Results At the end of the five year period, the female...
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...Evolution of the Management Theory ------------------------------------------------- Early Management 3000 – 2500 BC The Egyptian pyramids are proof that projects of tremendous scope, employing tens of thousands of people, were completed in ancient times. It took more than 100, 000 workers some 20 years to construct a single pyramid. Someone had to plan what was to be done, organize people and materials to do it make sure those workers got the work done, and impose some controls to ensure that everything was done as planned. That someone was manager. 1400s At the arsenal of Venice, warships were floated along the canals, and each stop, materials and riggings were added to the ship. In addition, the Venetians used warehouse an inventory systems to keep track of materials, human resource management functions to manage the labor force (including wine breaks), and an accounting system to keep track of revenues and costs. 1776 Wealth of the Nations book by Adam Smith was published. Adam Smith argued that the economic advantages of the division of labor breaking down jobs into narrow, repetitive tasks. 1780s – mid-1800s Industrial Revolution came with the birth of the corporation. Large and efficient factories pumping out products, someone needed to forecast demand, make sure there were adequate supplies of materials, assigned tasks to workers, and so forth. Classical Approaches Beginning around the turn of the twentieth century, the discipline...
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...The Hawthorne Experiments: Management Takes A New Direction General Electric, the major manufacturer of light bulbs, had preliminary evidence that better lighting of the work place improved worker productivity, but wanted to validate these findings to sell more light bulbs, especially to businesses. GE funded the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an impartial study. AT&T's Western Electric Hawthorne plant located in Cicero, Illinois, was chosen as the laboratory. Beginning with this early test, the “Hawthorne Experiments” were a series of studies into worker productivity performed at the Cicero plant beginning in 1924 and ceasing in 1932. Illumination Studies, 1924 -1927 The earliest experiment (1924) was conducted by the NRC with engineers from MIT. The study would end in 1927 with the NRC abandoning the project. The group examined the relationship between light intensity and worker efficiency. The hypothesis was that greater illumination would yield higher productivity. Two work groups of female employees were selected for “control” and “experimental” groups. By comparing the changes on worker productivity by manipulating lighting in the experimental group with the production of the control group, the researchers could validate and measure the impact of lighting. The study, however, failed to find any simple relationship as poor lighting and improved lighting seemed in increase productivity. Indeed, in the final stage...
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...Arshia Shafiei Student No: 21273317 Dec 12, 2014 Critically evaluate the classical and human relations approaches of management theory. One of the most important human activities is managing. Since the development of the first human civilizations managing has been essential to accomplish aims and objectives and ensure the coordination of individuals Olum (2004). Management is defined as the combination of the skills and talents of individuals concerned with getting things done through people by taking into account the resources for profitable activities Pettinger (1994). In the early twentieth century, Henry Fayol defined management as the process of “forecasting, planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling” Fayol (1949). Subsequently, Koontz and O’donell (1988) suggested the definition of management as “an operational process dissected by analyzing the managerial functions such as planning and organizing”. Over the last centuries management has been studied with the view of establishing what constitutes a successful manager Petinger (1994). The search for applicable principles of management initiated in the last years of nineteenth century in Europe and America Cole (2004). Like any other social practice, at the heart of management is theory that managers can deploy to achieve competition advantage and use more incisive interventions McAuley et al (2007). In addition the basic requirement of managers for meeting the challenges like competition, use of...
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