Neo - Classical School of Management Thought
Behavioral and Human Relations Approach
The criticism of scientific and administrative management as
advocated by Taylor and Fayol respectively gave birth to the behavioral
approach to management. They were criticized by several behavioral scientists
for their indifference and insensitiveness to the human side of managemental
dealings. Instead of taking a mechanistic view of workers as creatures with
only economic needs, behavioral scientists came to consider them as people with
social and psychological needs, too, such as recognition, respect, social
contact, freedom, and achievement. To them, a business organization is a
psycho-social system with a primary focus on the human side.
Taylor and Fayol are criticized for not considering the
human sides of workers and employees in their theories.
A good number of sociologists and psychologists like Abraham
Maslow, Hugo Munsterberg, Renesys Likert, Douglas McGregor, Frederick Herzberg,
Mary Parker Follet, and Chester Barnard are the major contributors to this
school of thought, which is further subdivided by some writers into the Human
Relations approach and the Human Behavioral approach, the latter being
considered as a modified version of the former.
The Human Relations theory recognizes the social and
psychological factors.
By far the most important contribution to human relations
school of thought was made by Elton Mayo and his colleagues through their
famous Hawthorne study. According to them, employees do not only have economic
needs but also social and psychological needs, which are to be satisfied to
motivate them.
McGregor, Likert, Chester Barnard, Kurt Lewin, and others,
classified as exponents of the Human Behavioral school, modified the Classical
Human Behavior approach of Mayo. They considered the human side of the
enterprise as an interactive subsystem of the total organizational system. As
distinguished from the classical human relations theory, the Human Behavioral
school is devoid of emotional content and emphasizes the synchronization of
group goals within the broader framework of management. It does not consider
the goals of the different groups of employees and managers - as conflicting
with each other, but rather cooperative.
The Human Behavioral school emphasizes the synchronization
of group goals.
The Human Relations school views an organization as a
psycho-social system in which workers and employees are human beings in the
first place. The Human Relations theory of management arose out of a reaction
against the Scientific and universal management process theories of Taylor and
Fayol respectively. The main criticisms leveled against them are their
indifference to and neglect of the human side of the enterprise. Employees,
according to their critics, were viewed as mere parts to be fused in the job
structure disregarding their human needs and aspirations.
While Taylor and Fayol view people at work merely as
economic beings the Human Relations theorists emphasize the need to view them
as social beings Principles of Management with social and psychological needs
such as recognition, respect, achievement, and social contact. This school
regards a business organization as a psycho-social system with much emphasis on
the human side. Human relations experts believe that management should recognize
the need of employees for recognition and social acceptance. Therefore,
managers need not only technical skills but also human relations skills to
interact with their subordinates as human beings. Followers of this school
believe that managers must know why their subordinates behave as they do and
what psychological and social factors influence them. According to these
theorists, since groups provide members with feelings of acceptance and
dignity, management can look upon the work group as a potential productive
force.
Elton Mayo and Hawthorne Studies
A good number of sociologists and psychologists like
McGregor, Likert, Munsterberg Simon, etc. contributed to the development of the Human
Relations School of Management. However, Elton Mayo and Hugo Munsterberg are
considered pioneers of this school. But by far the most important contribution
to this school of thought was made by Elton Mayo and his associates through the
Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company between 1927 and 1932.
The findings of Mayo and his colleagues from Hawthorne's
studies led to the conclusion that a human/ social element operated in the
workplace and that productivity increases were as much an outgrowth of group
dynamics as of managerial demands and physical factors. Another important
suggestion that came from the Hawthorne studies was that social factors might
be as powerful a determinant of worker-productivity as were financial motives.
Mayo found that informal work groups grew out of formal organization with their
leaders, influence systems, norms for appropriate behavior, and pressures for
conformity to maximum and minimum acceptable levels of performance.
The human/ social factor plays a prominent role in the workplace
according to Mayo Studies. Improvement of productivity, according to Mayo and
his colleagues, is the result of such social factors as morale, satisfactory
interrelationships between members of a workgroup, a sense of belonging, and
effective management. It is this kind of management with an understanding of
human behavior, particularly group behavior, that serves an enterprise through
such interpersonal skills as motivating, counseling, leading, and
communicating. “This phenomenon,” according to Weinrich and Koontz,
"arising basically from people being noticed has been known as the Hawthorne
effect."
The most important contribution of Hawthorne's studies is
that employees or workers are social beings, and work in organizations is not
merely a matter of machinery and methods but also of fitting them into a social
system resulting in a complete socio-technical system. This led to the
recognition of managers as people operating in a social system and they must
have some knowledge or understanding of behavioral sciences as applied to
management. In other words, Mayo and his associates underscored the need for a
greater and deeper understanding of the social and behavioral aspects of
management.
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2024-07-12 02:13:53