(Huczynski & Buchanan 1991:282/283)
These studies performed by Taylor, as well as those performed by other influential contributors such as Henry Gantt and the Gilbreths who also performed various experiments - most notably their time and motion studies in bricklaying - enabled Taylor to publish his paper 'The Principles of Scientific Management' in 1911 in which he revealed his four principles to be followed in order to achieve a sustainable industrial growth which financially benefited both employer and employee with higher profits and in turn higher wages.
Scientific management realized the need to reward good performance shown by employees. By the introduction of a piece-rate system of pay, employees could achieve short term gains by earning bonuses according to their productivity. Although 'profit share' schemes had already been in use to encourage workers into higher rates of productivity, Taylors' piece rate pay system offered an immediate benefit to workers who received higher wages if they worked quickly. This proved more effective in increasing productivity than previous schemes as the workers would receive their bonuses daily rather than every few months as in the other 'profit share' schemes.
Taylor unfortunately took this to mean that the employees were motivated solely by the potential financial gain involved in completing a task, and as such his methods of monitoring led to feelings of exploitation among the workforce and often caused clashes between the management and the workers.
“Scientific management ignored the social context and workers' needs... ...Under this system, workers often felt exploited.” (Daft, 2006:48)
Despite the vision of scientific management being to create harmony between management and the workforce, Taylors policies led to strikes in at least one factory; the American Watertown Arsenal, which in turn led to an investigation into his methods by the US Congress who despite finding some useful techniques, banned the use of his time study methods in the American defence industry. (Huczynski & Buchanan,1991:293)
By the end of his studies, Taylor was able to suggest the following four principles of scientific management:
“First. They develop a science for each element of a man's work, which replaces the old rule-of-thumb method.
Second. They scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop the workman, whereas in the past he chose his own work and trained himself as best he could.
Third. They heartily cooperate with the men so as to insure all of the work being done in accordance with the principles of the science which has been developed.
Fourth. There is an almost equal division of the work and the responsibility between the management and the workmen. The management take over all work for which they are better fitted than the workmen, while in the past almost all of the work and the greater part of the responsibility were thrown upon the men.” (Taylor, 1911)
'Taylorism' as this practice also became known was borne of one belief about the purpose of management: “The principal object of management should be to secure maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with maximum prosperity for the employee” (Taylor, 1911)
In many respects Taylors' dream was realized; that of a harmonious mutually beneficial relationship between workers and management. The methods of scientific management increased efficiency and productivity and reduced the necessary staffing levels all of which contributed to increased profits for the companies which adopted these management techniques. With the aid of the Gilbreths' and Gantt, it also reduced the effects of fatigue in the workforce and along with its increased productivity came increased wages. In many ways however it was not, as already shown, 'Taylorism' was sometimes seen by the workers as exploitative and led to clashes between them and the management, the exact opposite of what Taylor and other contributors had envisioned.
Human Relations Approach
The “Human Relations Movement refers to those researchers of organizational development who study the behaviour of people in groups, in particular workplace groups. It originated in the 1920s' Hawthorne studies, which examined the effects of social relations, motivation and employee satisfaction on factory productivity. The movement viewed workers in terms of their psychology and fit with companies rather than as interchangeable parts.” (Wikipedia, 2007)
Elton Mayo is widely regarded as the father of the Human Relations approach to management. He “directed a programme of research which showed the importance of groups in the behaviour of individuals, which enabled him to make certain deductions about what managers ought to do.” (University of Leicester, 2007:3.6-3.7)
He was most famously responsible for the Hawthorne Studies in the Western Electrical Company in the USA carried out between 1924 and 1932.
“They were conducted as a series of tests in four phases, designed to bring under control all the known factors which might influence performance at work.” (University of Leicester, 2007:3.7)
The phenomenon he witnessed during this series of studies became known as the Hawthorne Effect, and suggested that employee motivation depended not only on working conditions or monetary rewards for the employee, but in fact was heavily influenced by management or supervisory interest giving a feeling of recognition and a sense of belonging to the worker. (Answers.com, 2007)
“employees who participate in scientific studies may become more productive because of the attention they receive from the researchers. This discovery became important in the human relations movement because it has been interpreted to mean that when employees feel important and recognized, they exhibit greater motivation to excel in their work activities.” (Answers.com, 2007)
What the studies showed was that even when the working conditions were eroded quite considerably, the workers output increased;
“In one experiment, ample light was provided to a group of six female workers. Later, the amount of light was significantly reduced; but instead of productivity decreasing, as was expected, it actually increased.” (Answers.com, 2007)
This clearly demonstrated the importance of worker – management communication, and although Mayo's work came under much criticism in later years, it remained as probably the most influential work carried out on the subject up until the 1960's. ()
The most significant discovery made by Mayo during the investigations was the influence that informal social groups had over employee motivation in the workplace.
“Mayo had discovered a fundamental concept that seems obvious today. Workplaces are social environments and within them, people are motivated by much more than economic self-interest He concluded that all aspects of that industrial environment carried social value.” (Accel-Team.com, 2007)
According to Huczynski and Buchanan, the conclusions which can be drawn from the Hawthorne studies are as follows:
- People at work are motivated by more than just pay and conditions.
- Their need for recognition and a sense of belonging are very important.
- A person's attitude to work is shaped strongly by the group to which that individual belongs within the company.
- The ability of the informal group or clique to motivate an individual at work should not be underestimated. (Huczynski & Buchanan, 1991:163)
As a result of these findings, many companies sought to send their supervisors on human relations training courses. By improving their interpersonal abilities and teaching them to recognise and satisfy the social needs of the work groups that they were supervising, (Huzcynski & Buchanan, 1991:163) they hoped that they would also be able to improve morale and therefore productivity within the groups. This was due to the realisation by companies that the informal social groups formed between the workers were more influential in their productivity than any “controls or incentives of management” (Huzcynski & Buchanan, 1991:163)
Other influential contributors to the Human Relations Approach or Behavioural Sciences Approach as it is also known, included Abraham Maslow and his 'Hierarchy of Needs' model which described five levels of 'basic needs' of people.
- physiological,
- safety,
- love,
- esteem, and
- self-actualization or self-fulfillment.
Maslow arranged these needs in order of importance to the individual with the first being physiological; the need for nourishment and shelter, requirements for survival. He suggested that as each need was met, the next would become the persons goal until the point of 'Self-Actualization' or self fulfillment was met after all other requirements had been satisfied.
Another model of management theory was put forward by Douglas McGregor – Theory X and Theory Y.
Theory X assumes that the average person simply does not want to work and will avoid it if at all possible, requiring threats and incentives to induce 'hard' work. Therefore working as little as possible whenever the opportunity arises. This goes back to scientific management and Taylors' theory on 'soldiering' where workers would intentionally 'under-work', although this he felt was due to the belief that they would be put out of a job if productivity was too high, rather than an inherent dislike of work.
Theory Y on the other hand assumes that people did want to work, that given the appropriate opportunities they would excel in their work and show loyalty to the company seeking professional growth and responsibility. (Accel-Team.com, 2007)
Scientific Management vs Human Relations Management
Some view the ideas of Taylor and his 'principles of scientific management' as being dehumanising, they would have good reason to. Some of the methods used by Taylor evidently caused a good deal of controversy at the time.
However the aim of Taylor was not to cause conflict between workers and the management but to promote harmony instead;
“Taylor thought that it was the aim of scientific management to overcome the problems facing both management and workers in organisations. He felt that, as they depended on each other, they should be working towards the common good of the organisation with the aim of increased efficiency.” (University of Leicester, 3.5)
While it is felt that these 'principles' increased the monotony of work and it could be said took away an element of freedom from the workers, - hence the accusations of being dehumanising - it was Taylors' belief that the most suitable candidate should be selected for the job in the first instance to avoid such demoralising situations.
“The task is always so regulated that the man who is well suited to his job will thrive while working at this rate during a long term of years and grow happier and more prosperous, instead of being overworked.” (Taylor, 1911)
Furthermore, Taylor was a strong supporter of employee development, so not only should the most suitable worker be selected for the task initially, but then perhaps the opportunity for that worker to better themselves would be created through ongoing training and development until that worker 'can do (at his fastest pace and with the maximum of efficiency) the highest class of work for which his natural abilities fit him.' (Taylor, 1911)
Taylor also intended that the workers should be listened to. If the workers suggested an alternative method or tool to be used to complete a task, Taylor said that this should be tested and implemented if beneficial with the worker taking full credit and receiving a financial reward. This idea is in use in many companies today indeed in my own company we have a ‘bright ideas’ scheme whereby an employee can suggest improvements to current processes which may create a saving for the company or make a task safer for the employee and if after submission to the senior management it proves cost effective, it will be implemented with an appropriate financial reward being awarded to the employee.
“It may seem that with scientific management there is not the same incentive for the workman to use his ingenuity in devising new and better methods of doing the work, as well as in improving his implements, that there is with the old type of management. It is true that with scientific management the workman is not allowed to use whatever implements and methods he sees fit in the daily practise of his work. Every encouragement, however, should be given him to suggest improvements, both in methods and in implements. And whenever a workman proposes an improvement, it should be the policy of the management to make a careful analysis of the new method, and if necessary conduct a series of experiments to determine accurately the relative merit of the new suggestion and of the old standard, And whenever the new method is found to be markedly superior to the old, it should be adopted as the standard for the whole establishment. The workman should be given the full credit for the improvement, and should be paid a cash premium as a reward for his ingenuity. In this way the true initiative of the workmen is better attained under scientific management than under the old individual plan.” (Taylor, 1911)
Despite some fundamental differences between the two theories-
Scientific management assumed that workers act individually to satisfy their financial needs only, the human relations approach believed that workers were motivated to work by many factors, one of the most influential being our social needs. Taylor saw productivity and efficiency being improved by the breakdown of tasks into smaller parts, whereas human relations saw that increasing job satisfaction would improve productivity. Scientific management saw the workers as parts of a larger machine and they were treated as such; Human relations began to treat the workers as individuals and asses their needs to ensure that they were catered for.
-Taylors' work in scientific management actually paved the way for the human relations approach to follow and 'clean up' the theories which he put forward. The first steps toward this were made initially as part of the scientific movement by Henry Gantt who contributed motivational schemes but also emphasised the importance of leadership and management skills.
The Gilbreths also, who as mentioned earlier contributed most significantly to the development of time and motion studies, took some early steps towards human relations management. As a result of Lillian Gilbreths' formal training in psychology, they began to investigate the effects of fatigue on workers and on productivity and how to reduce those effects.
Conclusion
This all goes to show that there is a clear link between the two styles of management, and although very different in the way that they tackled the subjects of productivity and efficiency and had different views about how it was most greatly affected, both the main protagonists had similar goals; as well as productivity both Taylor and Mayo wanted to improve employer – employee relations.
When we consider the point in history that these theories were put forward we can see that they were very important and appropriate in their time however, if one is to consider today’s social, political and/or economic climate, scientific management as it was in the late 1800s or early 1900s would be unacceptable were it introduced today and would not survive our workers unions. In that respect human relations management is an improvement over scientific management as it takes into account the needs, wants and rights of the individual. In that way it improves the relationship between management and the workforce which according to the evidence gathered during the human relations movement will itself benefit industry by helping to improve productivity. However as we have seen, many aspects of scientific management are alive and well and as influential as ever well over a hundred years after its inception. Staff performance audits, performance incentive schemes and structured employee training and development sessions all stem from Taylors scientific management. Human relations management has softened the harsher sides of Taylors scientific management and made it acceptable to the masses by building on what was already there, but the essence of modern operations management still echoes back to the times of Taylor.
“While Taylor's impacts were the establishment of the industrial engineering, quality control and personnel departments, the human relations movement's greatest impact came in what the organization's leadership and personnel department were doing.” (Kernsanalysis.com, 2007)
Ultimately however, it was the work done during the human relations movement which has led to today’s common corporate belief that a company's most valuable asset is its employees.
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