Elton Mayo Contribution To Management Essays

In Oxford English Dictionary (ODD, 19971 'Hawthorne effect' is defined as meaning 'an improvement in the performance of workers resulting from a change in their working conditions, and caused either by their response to Innovation or by the feeling that they are being accorded some attention'. The groundbreaking experiments started in 1927 at the Hawthorne workers Chicago. The reason why Hawthorne works conducted those studies at first was aimed to see whether those workers could become more effective in a higher level of light or not.

Mayo and his associates found out that the product Improved hen changes of any working conditions were made. After several years' researched, they finally came to a conclusion that the increasing productivity probably due to the impact of the motivational effect on the workers as a result of the interest being shown In them from these experiments. And Just as Brakeman (1974) pointed out that the Hawthorne tests were based on Industrial psychology and were Investigating whether workers' performance could be predicted by pre-hire testing'.

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the finding from and repercussions of Mayo's tidies, to analyze the relations between the Hawthorne experiment and the human relations movement theory and provide some critical review about the Hawthorne studies in the 20th century. Findings of Hawthorne studies Scholars tended to considerate Hawthorne studies as one of the most powerful experiments in management history ' helping to spawned development of a new field of study?industrial psychology?and still influencing experimental research design today' (Levity, 2011 However, we dividend the whole experiments Into four stages for discuss.

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The first stage, illumination experiment, has fully showed that it is important for anger personnel to pay attention to the relationships between workers rather than the working condition in their workshop, for example, the levels of light. To clarify this point further, the welfare experiment was conducted. It explained that 1 OFF enthusiasm of the employees. However, the communication along workers is the basis of the dramatic increases of productivity. Then, sociologists revealed the effects of "informal group" on the productivity through group experiment.

Mayo (1945) interpreted this stage that those informal teams gave themselves wholeheartedly ND voluntarily to accomplished the experiment. What's more, Mayo and his associates interviewed some workers in the Hawthorne works to gather more information to prove their findings. The interviews had a cathartic effect on the employees. They find that the majority of workers were strongly eager for equality, respect and the sense of belongings in their workplace. After all the effort them had made, the key findings of Hawthorne experiments are as follow: 1. Hawthorne experimental proved that people are 'social person'.

Mayo objected to the old hypothesis that considered people as 'economic man'. He holds the view that money is not the key factor for workers to improve their productivity. Moreover, productivity is not Just a matter of reducing fatigue or significantly a matter of money, it mainly depends on the worker's enthusiasm. Workers longed for emotional comfort, security, harmonious and sense of belonging. 2. Hawthorne experimental confirmed the experimental efficiency largely associated with the relationships between man and man in an organization. Sociologists found that besides formal organization, there are informal groups.

Those groups own their facial emotion and tendency and play a decisive role on the production efficiency. 3. Elton Mayo also developed an explanation based on "anomie". The word describes the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and their community. It indicates that people should attach more importance to interpersonal relationships. 4. When talking about management skills, cohesive and good leadership are needed to ensure effective and coherent decision-making. Management personnel, or chief executives ought to place themselves in others' position to care subordinates and create an atmosphere for good communication.

Those findings from Hawthorne Experiments throw a light on the modern management theory. Ever since it, a great deal of theoretical and practical work has been done to achieve a high level of commitment in the organizations. As Sacristans and Locke (2006) cited that 'more and more companies acquire their employees to be able to successfully communicate and convey information, to be able to interpret others' emotions, to be open to others' feelings, and to be able to solve conflicts and arrive at resolutions nowadays'.

From this example, It's can't be denied that Hawthorne studies tremendously influence our work life today. Critical thinking science management experiments, there still exists some suspect of the result of Hawthorne effect. We should view the findings in a more rational ways. On one hand, the methodology of Hawthorne experiments has been largely criticized in technically. It seems that Mayo and his colleagues were not always rational when conducted the experiments.

Parsons (1974) argues that the conclusion is not accurate because of the feedback gathered from workers maybe emotional, the replies of workers are mostly emotional and suspicious, and those bias may lead to a wrong result of experiments. On the other hand, some sociologists doubted the Hawthorne studies in the social dimension. Scholars felt that although Mayo found the importance of informal work group in organizations but he ignored the effects of the union of the informal group.

Gilson(1940) and Knowles (1955) believed that human relations movement was designed to drive workers away from unions. It should be noted that the Hawthorne effect put more stress on the relationships between co-workers and ignore the regulations and rules in the organization. But from my point of view, the modern scholars should take note of that there is no reflect experiments in the history. 'Yet Hawthorne proved that this type of research comes with a potential cost, as different fields have different assumptions and values that limit cross-disciplinary research' (Mullion, 2012).

No matter how much criticism and praise the Hawthorne studies gained, it has accelerated the movement of management and obviously changed our working condition in some way. Summary Since the scientific management spring up from the sass, the development of Tailors successfully made an incredible increase in worker's productivity, nevertheless, it also lead to a more stressful working environment in workplace. Workers became extremely nervous and tried resulted from the assembly line, and the Jobs became more and more monotonous.

It has aroused strong dissatisfaction of the workers, resulting in a lot of strikes and worsens the relations between employees and employers. The Hawthorne studies helped people to realize the significant influence of the relationship in workplace. Maps studies provided researchers with an analysis of workers' behaviors within the organization. It is not enough to say how those experiments have influenced sociologists to do researches and that is also the reason why many scholars studied the Hawthorne experiments after all these years.

Human relations are a complex concept that neither 'economic men' nor 'social men' can fully explain worker's behaviors in plants. Whereas, we must admit that Elton Maps study has his bias and some conclusions may be proven wrong in the future by modern sociologists. With time going by, the methodology of management has changed and maybe more and more critical opinions has came out to doubt the importance, we can better handle the relationships in the workplace and improve the enthusiasm of workers which finally increase the production.

It is wildly accepted that Mayo was among the first sociologists to highlight the importance of teamwork. Critical review of company mergers Nowadays, it's a common phenomenon that companies in less developed countries are gobbled up by companies in developed country. However some scholars held the opinions that it's harmful to let those multinational companies take share of local market, and others argued that those takeovers would definitely bring benefits for all shareholders. Obviously, it has become a hot topic and caused drastic debate in our society.

According to Ludwig(2006), after the mergers, profit will go out of local entry in larger percentage, and in fact, it will cause unimaginative loss to local companies and those international companies can benefit from this trick. Thus, it will dramatically lower the standards of education and health care in local country and worsen the local people's life and unavoidable to damage to the local economic. Furthermore, allowance of company mergers will break the bond between the employees and employers in local companies.

At first, both of them shared the honors of their company, and the changes in management style and communication bring a lot of confusion and anxiety. It is more likely to bring about increased absenteeism and inefficiency, what is more worse is that employees may lose their sense of loyalty to their company. Finally after the arrival of multinational companies, a clash of cultural values is inevitable. Those larger, powerful companies based in developed countries will push their concept into the whole countries and had an long lasting effect on local companies.

It also arise our anxiety of so-called 'culture invasion'. Those opinions sound sacred for companies who considered merging with powerful international companies. But there are some voices insisted the advantages of company mergers. Firstly, Fatherlier (2006) argues that the powerful international companies can make up the shortages of local companies, such as the lack of marketing skills or finance and the inefficiency of management. Local companies can always be benefit in terms of scientific management practices that will largely reduce the production costs and higher the quality of products.

Secondly, for multinational companies, the mergers could loosen the barriers of entering the local market, and make it easier to get through the rules, regulations and many other troubles (Santiago,2005). On the other hand, in the practice of merger, international impasses can combine their management skills with the actual working situation and enrich their experiences. Thirdly, the increase of production will fasten the development of local countries and people can also be benefit from gaining a wilder choice of products, better quality and cheaper prices.

As far as I am concerned, to decide to combine with a international company is to face a substantial risks. The key point to success is to maintain your own business culture through the whole company. For those local companies, it is definitely a vital disadvantage of the loss of management practice and finance. After merger, they can quickly learn management skills or get abundant capital form powerful international companies, but what is must be emphasized is the local company can not loss the basic concept of their own company.

The culture of one company plays an important role in helping to main the working place. What also need to be put stress on is, in case of avoiding the conflicts after merger, both of companies need to make it clear about the responsibility and obligation. And the weaker company should know how to protect themselves in an international business environment. It will not be difficult for us to find that, as to many mergers, there are both advantages and disadvantages. We must view the argument critically. Only in that way can we draw an objective conclusion.

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