HENRI FAYOL

Elton Mayo
1880 1949
life
George Elton Mayo (26 December 1880 - 7
September 1949)
He was an Australian psychologist, sociologist and
organization theorist.
lectured at the University of Queensland from 1911 to
1923
Harvard Business School (1926 - 1947) as a professor
of industrial research
He stressed the importance of human and social
factors in industrial relationships.

Questioned the overemphasis on technical skills at the
expense of adaptive social skills.

Emphasized the workers performance is related to
psychological, sociological and physical factors.

Management will get positive response from its
employees when their actions & sentiments are given
due attention.



Contribution
He has been called the founder of the human
relations school.

He became famous on account of the Hawthorne
experiments which he performed as a team leader.

These experiments had a significant impact on
management thought, and considerably influenced the
human relations movement.

Experiments conducted in the Hawthorne Plant of the
Western Electric Company in Chicago from 1927 to
1932. Hawthorne studies were of three types:

Test Room Studies : the object being to assess the effect
of single variables upon employee performance. They
were experimental in nature
Interviewing Studies: these were largely concerned
with improving employee attitudes and were
psychological in nature
Observations Studies: these were undertaken to
understand and describe the factors influencing the
informal organization of work groups and were
sociological in nature

It Highlighted the importance of:
Leadership practices.
Work group pressures on employees satisfaction.
Downgrade importance of economic incentives.
Employees react not to one but to whole complex
of forces.

CONCLUSIONS OF
HAWTHORNE STUDIES

Environmental factors not the sole factors affecting
productivity
Worker is not an economic man (not purely
motivated by money alone)
Importance of recognition, Security and Morale
Importance of Informal group
Importance of total work situation
Complaints as symptoms
Mayo with his studies made a great impact on the
development of management thought
Notable publication
The Human Problems of an Industrialized
Civilization (1933).
The Social Problems of an Industrial
Civilization (1945).
The Political Problems of an Industrial
Civilization (1947).
Summary of Mayo's Beliefs
Individual workers cannot be treated in isolation, but
must be seen as members of a group.
Monetary incentives and good working conditions are
less important to the individual than the need to
belong to a group.
Informal or unofficial groups formed at work have a
strong influence on the behavior of those workers in a
group.
Managers must be aware of these 'social needs' and
cater for them to ensure that employees collaborate
with the official organization rather than work against
it.
Conflict between managers and workers was
inevitable as long as workers were ruled by the logic
of sentiment
and managers by the logic of cost and efficiency.
The simple rules of interviewing:-
1. Give your full attention to the person interviewed,
and make it evident that you are doing so.
2. Listen - don't talk.
3. Never argue; never give advice.
4. Listen to: what he wants to say; what he does not
want to say; what he can not say without help.
5. As you listen, plot out tentatively and for
subsequent correction the pattern that is being set
before you.