Reading 2 - The Human Relations Approach

Some Early Developments

The third strand in the development of modern management was the increase in attention to the
human factors, which has become known as the 'human relations school of management.'
The UK was served by some remarkable men, both of high reputation as managers as well as
impressive in theoretical presentation. The small group that surrounded B. S. Rowntree, who did
much to set out the arguments for an ethical approach to management responsibilities, was declaring
sturdily that it was good business to look after the worker also. The enlightened paternalism that they
offered was attractive to many in management, particularly those who saw it as a continuation of the
comradeship of First World War.

At the National Institute of Industrial Psychology, Dr C. S. Myers FRS, the Director until 1931,
promoted empirical studies of industrial fatigue in particular, and employee problems in general. The
inevitable professional body appeared, initially with the support of the ubiquitous cocoa
manufacturers, who were so active in promoting that combination of humanity with profit for which
they have been justly famous. After many metamorphoses, the Welfare Workers' Association (1913)
was eventually to become the modern Institute of Personnel Management (IPM).

But ideas from the United States were also influential. Elton Mayo's detailed and continuing work in
the Hawthorne experiments, widely publicized as it was, seemed to suggest that a new approach to
motivation and employee care was both possible and sensible. Although aspects of this work were
later to be questioned, they remained the largest and probably most influential work in this field into
the 1960s.

Thus by the Second World War a level of good management practice was established in the UK,
principally in the professional bodies, a limited educational establishment, the body of thoughtful
managers who surrounded B. S. Rowntree and an embryo consultant effort based on the Bedaux
Company and its successors, which although criticized had provided the most extensive contribution
to scientific management.

Yet it is easily possible to overestimate the influence of these pioneers on established practice. In
general, industrial managers remained pragmatic in outlook, suspicious of new ideas and wedded to
the oversimplified notions of the past. Firms such as ICI, but without enthusiasm or success
occasionally experimented with sophisticated organizational structures. No revolution along the lines
that Alfred Sloan (1875–1966), (Sloan (1963)) introduced at General Motors was achieved. British
industry preferred the simple 'one man control' system that it thought had served it so well in the
past.

This remained as true for the successful firms like Morris and Austin as for the failing giants in
textiles and engineering. Hence, notions of leadership became of great interest and efforts were made
to develop the personal skills that it was thought might best contribute to the more effective
operation of this system.

The Second World War itself called for the display of unity and drive that was to achieve great
things, but these successes were to overshadow many real faults that needed to be changed. At the
end, however, it was to establish, among other things, the vast superiority of American production
capacity, and, by implication, its manufacturing methods and management.
By 1944 USA arms production was six times that of the UK, but whilst the British effort took nearly
two-thirds of the GNP (as it did in Germany) the figure for America was never more than 43 per
cent. Few European governments have been, or are, unaware of this overwhelming superiority.

Post-war expansion

The problem of how to benefit from the American example received first priority in the postwar era.
Teams were dispatched from the Anglo-American Council of Productivity to examine the
phenomena. They pointed to;

• low productivity,
• lack of modern machinery,
• limited horsepower available,
• anachronistic trade union practices,
• poor management, and
• the complete lack of any management education in the UK (Hutton (1953)).

However, apart from the spread of professional bodies and moderate support for the new Diploma in
Management Studies (DMS) in colleges that resulted from the Urwick Report of 1946, little was
done. After all, business was booming and unemployment was almost nonexistent until the mid-
1960s.

Even if UK growth was slow and uneven, it was still superior to anything achieved in the recent past.
Yet new ideas began to permeate, management education eventually becoming respectable in the
expansion of higher education in the 1960s.

This, however, contained some problems. Academic respectability suggested that managers should
be divided, with top managers going to prestige institutions to do MBAs, while middle managers did
DMSs elsewhere and supervisors were directed to lower level institutions. This, to some degree,
breached the unity of management that had seemed important to the Urwick Committee.

Further, academics tended to interpret respectable as scientific, and scientific as mathematical. A

host of esoteric techniques appeared which had perhaps less relevance to the world of business
management than to the backroom planner in a multinational.
In attitudes to people also, the behavioral scientists, after initially producing theories that appeared to
be readily acceptable as conventional wisdom, have been forced to seriously reconsider their
position. Over a quarter of a century, the work of McGregor, Likert, Maslow, Hertzberg, and a score
of others seemed to indicate the advantages of the pluralistic approach to human relations.

The impact of Japanese achievements has required as much rethinking for behavioralists as for
technologists, although their efforts are as yet not far advanced. In the UK, lack of success and
recession had rather led to a reversion to older habits than to a substantial rethink.

Yet, whatever reassessment has been necessary, the need for education and the detailed skills it
produces have been reinforced. But what those techniques are is still far from clear, particularly on
the personal relationship side. The Japanese are nothing if not unitary in their approach to personal
relations.

In Western societies are we then, too divided or stratified to follow them? Can a unitary approach be
accommodated in a theory that appears to give great weight to individual incentives? If we could get
the quantitative-based techniques right would prosperity be resumed and divisions diminish? It is
easy to ask these questions but providing the scientific managers of the future with the appropriate
tools and theories is somewhat more difficult.
Framework

Human relations are important to the development and long term sustainability of organizations.
They, human relations, can be interpreted in many different ways. As many organizations and people
see human relations from a completely different viewpoint.

However, human relations in the work environment and from a management point of view, we
suggest, can be classified into two main points as follows:

• Industrial relations, or human relations which results from the meetings of management and
workers.
• The personal or human relationships which spring up, grow and exist in any work place
environment.

The improvement of relations between all levels has long been accepted as a very important element
in the development and improvement of any industrial organization, and there are few long term
successful management's which have not exerted a great deal of effort in this direction.

There is, however, the possibility that the policy of improved human relations may be pursued solely
because of its effect on productivity, and not from the more fundamental motive of producing a
correct and balanced attitude to the personal and social needs of the workers.

Merely to aim for higher output may bring neither greater output nor satisfaction to the worker, but if
the aim is to bring more personal satisfaction to the worker in his work and his surroundings, then
both higher output and job satisfaction may be achieved.

Needs of an Individual

Good human relations can only be established if the needs of an individual are satisfied and his / her
will to work is stimulated. This presents the difficulty that management is dealing with a group of
individuals, all of whom may respond differently in a given situation.
However, it is possible to generalize on the average response evoked in certain situations, and in the
context of human relations in industry, it is possible to arrive at some general conclusions about
man's attitude to work and the hopes, fears and aspirations he has regarding it.

The extent to which these hopes and desires are fulfilled in the work situation or working
environment naturally governs the degree of job satisfaction derived by the worker. The extent to
which the personal job satisfaction is achieved is the measure by which each worker will apply his/
her abilities and will to work.

• To provide job satisfaction must, therefore, be the ultimate aim for those who organize and
control workers.
• To achieve this aim, it is necessary to provide motivation of the right type to all in the
organization

The Work Environment

The work environment describes the factors which affect an individual when he or she is at work. It
includes the:

• human relationships such as management and trade unions with which the individual is
concerned,
 • the working group of which he / she is a member,
• the motivational policies of the organization,
• the productivity agreements of his / her firm,
• the physical conditions which affect him / her, and the psychological factors of the work
situation.

There are many management theories on the effect of the work environment on individuals,
achievement motivation and on working groups and it is, therefore, necessary to consider the view
points and research of individuals who have been involved in this work. Individuals who have
contributed research and theories include those listed people below.

Elton Mayo’s Hawthorn experiments

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.
Over the course of five years, Mayo’s team altered the female worker’s working conditions and then
monitored how the 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.
At the end of the five year period, the female worker’s working conditions, reverted back to the
conditions before the experiment began. Unexpectedly the workers morale and productivity rose to
levels higher than before and during the experiments.
The combination of results during and after the experiment (ie the increase in the workers
productivity when they were returned to their original working conditions) led Mayo to conclude that
workers were motivated by psychological conditions more than physical working condition. He also
concluded that workers were motivated by more than self interest and instead the following applied:

• There is an unwritten understanding between the worker and employer regarding what is
expected from them; Mayo called this the psychological contract.
• A worker’s motivation can be increased by showing an interest in them. Mayo classified
studying the workers (through the experiments) as showing an interest in the workers.
• Work is a group activity, team work can increase a worker’s motivation as it allows people to
form strong working relationships and increases trust between the workers. Work groups are
created formally by the employer but also occur informally. Both informal and formal groups
should be used to increase productivity as informal groups influence the worker’s habits and
attitudes.
• Workers are motivated by the social aspect of work, as demonstrated by the female workers
socialising during and outside work and the subsequent increase in motivation.
• Workers are motivated by recognition, security and a sense of belonging.
• The communication between workers and management influences workers’ morale and
productivity. Workers are motivated through a good working relationship with management.