Human Relation's Movement

Introduction

Human relations movement is used to describe the work of researchers of organizational development who observe and study the behavior of people within professional groups. It is based on Hawthorne studies of 1930s which focused on the impacts of social relations and satisfaction of the workers orb employees on factory production. It stressed on the psychology of workers and how their thoughts fit in with the respective organizations with whom they are working. All these researches lead to the emergence of human resource management as a separate discipline in its own right.

Mayo's work in this field

Elton Mayo stressed mainly on three important areas. The first one was natural groups, where social aspects have greater importance in comparison to functional structure of an organization. The second was upward communication, which was two way, between the worker and the CEO as well as the other way round. Mayo is of the opinion that good leadership is essential within an organization in order to ensure successful decision making. Offering employees with on the job inter-personal training skills have become quite common these days. These programs are essential in order to enhance the communication which takes place between the employees and the management, be able to understand each other feelings and problems, resolve issues and come at resolutions. With the help of these skills, employees, especially the ones at the higher level can create and maintain long lasting relationships with clients.

Arguments against Mayo

Elton Mayo's theory is regarded as the exact opposite of scientific management and Taylor-ism. Taylor-ism, which was pioneered by F.W.Taylor, applied science to employee management within organizations, in order to boost economic efficiency by increasing productivity of employees. Mayo has been regarded as the first academic who paid attention to the workers of an organization as individuals. But Mayo's role as the pioneer of human relations movement has been questioned by some researchers who believe that human relations as a concept had come into being before Hawthorne investigations which marked the beginning of human relations movement. Bruce and Nyland are of the view tat many researchers before Mayo came up with a concept with marked similarity to human relations movement. A notable name which has been included in the list of researchers is that of Henry S.Dennison, who at a point of time the president of Taylor Society. He has been related to the human relation movement ideas as well as Taylor-ism. Dennison showed considerable concern for the well being and character of employees as well as control taken by the management of an organization.

Conclusion

Though Mayo's work has been criticized by scholars, yet it played a major role in enhancing communication between the management and workers, thereby leading to the up gradation of skills of the former to make them valuable assets for the organization.

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