Sashi, Magali, May, Marcel, Vikram
Management & Leadership Across Management & Leadership Across CulturesCultures
“A management approach based on the consideration of and attention to the social
factors at work and the behavior of employees within an organization. Particular importance is
paid to the informal organization and the satisfaction of individual's needs through
groups at work” (Mullins, 2002).
Hawthorne studies – Western Electric Company plant (Chicago).
The studies consisted of finding out if improved working conditions (lighting, heating and rest pauses) have an impact on productivity.
Results of Mayo’s research:
Increased performance due to social belongings (being part of a group).
Human Relations approach puts emphasis on a greater understanding of people’s psychological and social needs at work
Employees go to work in order to satisfy a complexity of needs
The Hawthorne experiments:Generated new ideas concerning the importance of
work groups and leadership, communication, motivation and job design.
Made a significant attribution towards providing a further insight into human behaviour at work and the development of management thinking.
Are the most important foundations of the human relations approach to management and the development of organizational behaviour (Mullins, 2002).
In today’s world’s:New technological innovations.Growing importance of technical and
theoretical know-how.Disappearance of boundaries between national
markets.IT (Pyöriä, 2005).
McGregor developed Theory X and Y based upon Maslow’s framework (Robbins, DeCenzo, 2008).
Represents the assumptions on which traditional organizations are based.
This was widely accepted and practiced before the development of Human Relation Approach.
Key beliefs:People are lazy and have an inherent dislike of
work.People must be co-erced, controlled, directed and
threatened with punishment.People avoid responsibility, they prefer to be
directed, lack ambition and value security most of all.
Motivation occurs only at the physiological and security levels (Mullins, 2001).
Viewed the typical employee as an energetic and creative individual who could achieve great things if given the opportunity.
Theory based on the correct assumptions about human nature – a theory that makes explicit ‘’the human side of an enterprise’’.Work is natural activity, like play or rest.People are capable of self-direction and self-control
if they are committed to objectives.People will become committed to organizational
objectives if there are rewarded for doing so.The average person can learn to both accept and
seek responsibility.Many people in the general population have
imagination, ingenuity and creativity (Kreiner, 2009).
Majority of organizations today value their employees.
The motivation, the potential for development, the capacity for assuming responsibility, the readiness to direct behaviour toward organizational goals are all present in people. Management does not put them there. A responsibility of management is to make it possible for people to recognize and develop these human characteristics for themselves (Latham, 2007).
The traditional use of rewards and sanctions exercised by the nature and management are likely to result in an exploitative or authoritarian style of management (Mullins, 2001).
We conclude that each researcher discovered the value of people as important resources rather
than objects (apart from Theory X).
Team work as well as social belonging are fundamental part of improved job performance.
Kreiner R. (2009), Principles of Management. South Western, a part of Cengage Learning
Mullins, L.J (2001) Hospitality management and Organisational Behaviour, 4th Edition. London, Pearson Education Ltd.
Mullins, L.J. (2002) Management and Organisational Behaviour. sixth edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited
Pyöriä, P. (2005) Information technology, human relations and knowledge work teams. Team Performance Management Vol.11 No. 3 / 4 pp 104-112
Robbins, S.P. DeCenzo, D.A. (2008) Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, 6th Edition. New jersey, Pearson Prentice Hall.