GEORGE ELTON MAYO Modern Human Relations approach of the management

GEORGE ELTON MAYO  Human Relations approach of the management

Professor George Elton Mayo, one of the pioneers of human relations approach to the organization was born in 1880 in Adelaide, Australia. He studied Industrial Sociology and Industrial psychology. He received his M.A. degree in Logic and Philosophy from the University of Adelaide in 1899. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland. In Scotland, he was associated with a study of Psychology. After visiting a few countries in West Africa, Mayo back to his native land. And he began to study psychology at Adelaide University. Mayo successfully organized psychiatric treatment to the soldiers who suffered from shell shock during the first world war in recognition of which he appointed chairman of the Philosophy Department at the University of Queensland in 1919.

In 1926, Mayo became a Professor of Industrial research at the Graduate school of Business Administration, Harvard University. He concentrated all his thinking on the private industrial establishment. In all his research programmers, Mayo focused his attention on the workers' behavior and their production capacity keeping in view physiological, physical, economic, and psychological aspects. Mayo published a few books and contributed several scholarly articles to different journals. 

 

Elton Mayo concentrated his attention on fatigue, accidents, production levels, rest periods. Working conditions, etc., of the industrial labor in the factories. He started his research in a textile mill near Philadelphia in 1923. The employers were highly enlightened and humane, but the president and director of personnel faced problems in the mule-spinning of the textile mill department; about 100 industrial workers were required every year to keep about 40 workings. Since it was a crucial department for the smooth functioning of the mill, the management introduced several schemes by way of incentive, but to their surprise, all the attractions failed miserably to retain the labor. As a resort, the firm referred the problem to Harvard University.

 

 This way, the first significant research study was undertaken by Elton Mayo after joining the Harvard school and named the study "The first Inquiry." He studied the problems of the mule-spinning department intensely from various angles Physical, social-psychological. After protracted participatory observation method, he found out that almost every piece, working in the mule-spinning department, suffered from foot trouble for which they had no immediate remedy. With these changes, pessimism disappeared, production picked up, and the workers started earning bonuses. Thus, in his first research study, Mayo was able to probe into the problem and suggest remedies. His military experience taught him to care for his men and not to be afraid of making decisions.

 

The next phase of the human relations concept commenced at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric company, which employed 25,000 workers and was located in the Chicago city. Therefore, the national research council of the National Academy of Sciences decided to examine the precise relationship between illumination and the efficiency of the worker with a research program at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric company; the research began in 1924.

Mayo also noted that the worker should be made to come out openly with their needs interact freely and without fear, with company officials, Improving morale is to be associated with the style of supervision, morale and productivity became the foundation stone of experiments had been hailed as the Greet Illumination because of it had thrown light on the new areas of industrial relations.

 

In 1928, the Harvard study team started in the same plant, a special study of human attitudes and sentiments. In the study, The workers were asked to express their likes and dislike freely and frankly on the programs and policies, how their boss, etc. treated them.

 

Elton Mayo and his colleague concluded that one should not miss the organization's human aspect while emphasizing the technical and economic aspects of the industries. The Hawthorne experience suggested a new mix of managerial skills. In addition to technical skills, the management should handle social situations, motivate, lead and communicate on the technical progress and materialize at the expense of social and human life was not good and laid the blame at the feet of David Ricardo and his 'rabble hypothesis.' Mayo suggested that the concept of authority should be based on social skills in securing cooperation rather than expertise.

  

The contribution of Mayo to the administrative organization has been a great innovation of modern times. He attempted to understand industrial labor problems from an angle different from the traditional approach of the scientific management era. The Hawthorne studies soon became a historic landmark in administration enough. The contribution of Mayo is immensely useful not only in the industrial sector but also in the administrative system of a state, particularly in the core of bureaucracy. His main emphasis was on the individual well being which the help of social skills in any organization; the total contribution of Mayo is such a phenomenon that he is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the human relations concept in administrative thought