Impact Of Management On The Development Of Organizational Behaviour

Classical organization theory evolved during the first half of this century. It represents the merger of scientific management, bureaucratic theory, and administrative theory.

The nineteenth century was a time ripe with progress and hope due to booming industrialization. As organizations and workforces grew, people looked for ways to increase their productivity and profit margins. New ideas were needed to satisfy both business owners and their employees and as such, along came theorists such as Marx or other contributors like Frederick Taylor and Elton Mayo. Taylor produced a management style coined Scientific Management whereas Mayo took a slightly different route and conducted the Hawthorne studies. Over the years theorists such as Marx, with his wildly popular theory about alienation in the workplace, have shaped our view of how management should be conducted in

Managers throughout history have been interested in studying ways to increase productivity. For example, Frederick Taylor began the movement of scientific management in the 1880’s. Scientific management looked to improve productivity through means of scientific analysis of worker’s tasks and work processes rather than the old “rule of thumb” (Taylor, 1914). Taylor believed that he could maximize worker efficiency and productivity through focusing on workers specific hand motions and patterns. After this period, beginning in about the 1930’s, managers looked to take productivity to yet another level by studying worker physiology and motivation. This new movement came to be known as the human relations movement.

As a manager, he should have a responsibility to guarantee that employees are aware of the organization's values, morals, prospects and the right or wrong opinion of company. Besides, it is a leadership theory that supports the manager's behavior. It will affect the manifestation of his or her employees. According to the theory, ethical behavior can create an environment with high morale, good principles and respect to employees.

Since the publication of the experiment report “management and the worker” in 1939(Gillespie, 1991) the Hawthorne studies have been playing an important role in management, psychology and sociology. Hawthorne studies were the foundation for the modern day management thinking. Hawthorne studies have been subject to many criticisms but it produced the fundamental changes in the development of management thoughts. The great contribution Hawthorne studies made to the development of modern management these experiments are identified as the most important piece of experimental industrial social science ever undertaken. For example, Buchanan and Huczynski (2004) indicated that “the Hawthorne research revolutionized social science thinking”. In this essay we are discussing management concepts used prior to Hawthorne studies, brief introduction of Hawthorne experiment and its findings, how Hawthorne studies reshape the modern management thinking in the sense of social science, criticisms on Hawthorne studies and conclusion.

Findings from the Hawthorne studies emerged at the time when Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management theory was in place. However, the findings from the Hawthorne studies, with some realistic modifications to the individual scenarios and modernization, can still be applicable to the managers of today, when used to handle staff in the various fields, even more than the requirements of the initial industrial management.

Job fractionation lead to unauthorized breaks, as people did not like their jobs. Workers reacted by refusing to co-operate, and unionization efforts and sabotage also became more common during this period. Over time, concern for improving worker’s attitudes arose and by the 1930s, behavioural scientists began looking at ways to make employees happier on the job. As we have just discussed, the benefits that arose from scientific management seemed outweighed by the multiple drawbacks we have just highlighted, relating the human needs and considerations of workers. Thus, the idea based on rationality and technique almost seemed to “dehumanise the practice of management”, through this statement Inkson & Kolb (2001) understood.

The scientific management movement led the industrial revolution to change our way of life, our perception of work and our understanding for what an organization is. This paradigm shifted to the Human relations movement (led by the so called "Mayoists") as a result of the Hawthorne studies, which took into consideration the physical, social and psychological needs of employees unlike the previous paradigm. Taylorists considered the employee as good as a productive machine can be. In return, the Mayoists brought change to the environment of employee and employer. Not just that, but a whole fundamental change into the development of management thought.

Systems Theory which was first proposed by Ludwig von Bertelanffy (Hungarian biologist) in 1928, believes the different parts of an organization are all interrelated, thus if one variable is changed, this change could have an impact on the other parts of the organization. It further argues that, organizations are open systems, which constantly relate with its environment, where they are in a peculiar equilibrium, as they adjust to changes in the environment.

The following pages will clarify the works of two renowned theorists within the field of Management. The two theorist chosen are Elton Mayo (1880-1949) and Abraham Maslow (1923-2000). Elton Mayo, an Australian psychologist conducted the Hawthorne Studies from which the Human Relations approach to management was formed. The Hawthorne studies consisted of a series of three experiments: The Illumination Experiments (1924-1927), The Relay Assembly Test Room Experiments (1927-1932), and The Bank Wiring Observation Room Experiments (1931-1932). Even though, Mayo wasn’t involved in some of the experiments he is still seen as the lead figure of the Hawthorne Studies.

In the beginning of 20th century, when the industrialization started taking over, a number of organizational experiments took a place. They were consisted by The Hawthorne studies, they are still relevant in nowadays organizational management. The first of the experiments was “The illumination experiment” taken in 1924-1927 by A Western Electric Company. The observation during the experiment “explored the relationship between the quality of illumination and efficiency”, the lighting was only one of the factors affecting productivity of workers. (Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D., 2013)

|Workforce diversity is one of the most important and broad-based challenges currently facing organizations. |

The famous concept of Scientific Management was originated by Frederick W. Taylor few centuries ago. Scientific management is a way of organizing and administrating the industry with its own system involving rules, methods and policies (Thompson, 1916). His goal was to standardize and connect all the current improvements in industrial organization and to push it further according to his concept (Thompson, 1914). His work later gave inspiration to many researches from other fields (Wren, 2011). On the other hand, Elton Mayo research later on the Hawthorne Experiment has deviated the industrial psychology from what relates the worker’s relationship to his job instead to workers prioritizing work relations and attitude (Cubbon, 1969). Elton Mayo then develops the concept of Human Relations by studying the workers in groups instead of how Taylor did by studying workers as individual. Through this, he noticed workers prefer working in groups and it even increases the productivity of the work place. (Ionescu & Negrusa, 2013).

The Hawthorne Studies is one of the most well-known series of experiments of the social sciences in industrial history. The objective of the experiments were to establish how an individual is influenced not only by their own abilities, but by their working environment and the people they work with, both fellow workers and supervisors. To gain a better understanding of what the Hawthorne studies were, why they were conducted, and how they have impacted management practices, one must first understand the history behind the key contributors of this study and the location where the studies took place, the Western Electric Company. However, the studies did receive criticism, some of which was considered fairly harsh, such as from Alex Carey The Hawthorne studies were conducted by Harvard’s Business School Industrial Research Group, George Elton Mayo, and Fritz J. Roethlisberger. These two men were major contributors to what we know as the Hawthorne Effect, and their contributions to this experiment has set forth unprecedented changes in the way organizations run.

All team members will receive the same grade for the company research project. The same for the two person facilitation project. In addition, both the quality of the content as well as the spirit of the contributions are significant variables in grading.