Hawthorne Experiments:

These were conducted by Elton Mayo and his associates from Harvard University. The studies were at the Hawthorne Plant of Western Electric Company (US) from 1927 to 1932.

Earlier on other researchers had conducted experiments using two groups - an experiment group which was subjected to changes in the lighting (illumination) and a control group whose lighting was kept constant. When lighting conditions were improved productivity went up, but even when lighting conditions were worsened productivity also went up. This was puzzling but what complicated the problem further was that the control groups productivity increased as lighting was altered for the experiment group.

In an attempt to solve this puzzle Mayo triggered off the human relations movement. In a new experiment Mayo used two groups of 6 women each. For the experiment group such variables as salaries were changed, rest periods were added, work hours were shortened and groups were allowed to suggest the changes they wanted made. Again output went up for both groups.

Mayo ruled out financial resources as the causes since the control groups salary remained the same. They concluded that a complex emotional chain reaction had triggered the increase in productivity. They felt that because the members of the groups had been singled out for special attention, they developed a group pride that motivated them to improve productivity. The experiment made Mayo conclude that special attention (like being selected in a study exposing one to constant contact with top management) caused people to increase their efforts - a phenomenon that has come to be referred to as the Hawthorne Effect.

Mayo further tried to establish why such special attention should cause people to increase their efforts. He found out that the special environment of employees informal work groups have great influence on productivity. Mayo concluded that workers are human beings who are affected more by social interactions. He felt that the concept of "social man" had to replace the old concept of "rational man" advocated by the classical theorists.

Contributions and Limitations of the Human Relations Approach

Mayo's human relations had major impacts (contributions) on management thinking and practices.

• It focused on human factors as an important managerial variable which resulted in more and more researches paying attention to the human element in organizations.
• It led to improvements in employee welfare in many organizations
• Labour gained more economic and political power acting through trade unions.
• Mayo also highlighted the importance of a manager's style and therefore revolutionalized management training, and managers started thinking more in terms of group processes and group rewards to supplement individual rewards.

The human relations movement also had three major limitations:

• In viewing human factors as the single most important organizational variable it committed the mistakes of earlier theories, searching for one best way of managing. The scientific management method had tried to search for the one best way of designing jobs, while the administrative theory had searched for the one best way to arrange organizational activities.
• The human relations theorist also viewed workers as 'social beings' motivated by social rewards, but this was also too simplistic a view of human beings who are complex and motivated by a variety of factors.
• They also assumed that satisfied workers would be productive and this made firms introduce fringe benefits e.g. vacations but this was not always true - benefits did not always result in increased productivity. This movement however paved the way for the development of behavioural science of the 1960s and 1970s.

The behavioural scientists like Argyris, Maslow and McGregor believed that the concept of "self actualizing man explained human behaviour more accurately (the behavioural scientist theories will be covered later under employee motivation.