There's a number of famous motivational theorists and Elton Mayo is one of them. He developed a theory of motivation named the Human Relations School of Thought after conducting an experiment with employees at a factory in Illinois. Let's take a look at what it's all about and why a business should consider the theory when attempting to motivate their employees. First of all, it's very important to acknowledge that Elton Mayo was a supporter of Frederick Taylor's theory of motivation, known as scientific management or Taylorism, within which Taylor suggests that employees are mainly motivated by pay.
However, Mayo had a strong belief that employee motivation was much more complex than solely being influenced by money, and he wanted to find out what this was to help businesses get the most out of their employees. He initially thought that employee motivation was influenced by physical factors such as a change in working conditions, including the amount of heating or lighting provided in the working environment or how rest breaks were regulated. Therefore, during the 1920s, he set up and conducted a series of tests known as the Hawthorne Studies or Hawthorne Experiment.
During the experiment, Mayo separated workers from the Hawthorne factory based in Illinois into two teams with the aim of investigating the impact of these physical factors on their motivation levels and respect. productivity. Mayo altered the working conditions across both teams for example increasing the amount of light employees were exposed to or the length of rest breaks employees received in one team and then decreasing them in the other. He was essentially varying the physical factors of the working environment to see if there was an optimum amount and if so the impact it had on employees motivation or productivity levels.
Heating and working hours were amongst the additional physical factors which Mayo adapted during the experiment to assess their impact. Mayo predicted that the motivation levels of employees would decrease as the working conditions became worse, which would then have a negative impact on their productivity. However, he was surprised to find that his prediction was wrong. changes to the working environment such as decreasing the amount of light that employees were subjected to during the experiment actually had no detrimental impact on their motivation or productivity.
In fact productivity levels improved or at the very least remained the same. So Mayo had to go back to the drawing board and started to investigate the matter further and eventually he came to a different conclusion than what he originally believed. He concluded that it was in fact social factors and not physical factors which helped to boost both the motivation and productivity levels of employees.
What became clear during the experiment was positive relationships and clear communication between managers and employees were found to be very influential in regards to increasing employee motivation. This was because the participants started to feel valued and appreciated as they had been selected to take part in the experiment. It made them feel somewhat special, which led to them forming new relationships and increase their morale. In the modern world, we expect businesses to have a dedicated human resources department, or at least an employee responsible for the people it employs. However, It was the outcome of the Hawthorne experiment and Mayo's human relations theory which led to the development of the first ever formal personnel department, which was set up and focused on the needs of employees, evolving into what we know today as human resources.
Following this, Mayo suggested that managers should be more involved in employees'working lives, and the workforce should be structured so employees are working in teams where possible, rather than in isolation, to increase the social interaction in the workplace. Essentially, Mayo believed that employees should be treated more like humans than robots, and managers should take greater interest in them as people who have valuable opinions and are naturally social beings. Following the Hawthorne experiment, the term Hawthorne effect was formed.
This became the first term for the word. became a term to classify the relationship between the attention that employees received and the amount of work that they produce. Put simply, the more attention they receive, the more valuable they feel, and the more productive they become, or at the very least, individuals alter an aspect of their behaviour when they become aware that they are being observed.
However, The Hawthorne effect has faced criticism for being exaggerated and flawed. Essentially there is some truth to the Hawthorne effect, but how much of an impact it has on results remain in question. So now that we know the fundamentals of Mayo's theory of human relations, let's explore some of the key benefits and drawbacks of the motivational theory and its application in the modern business world.
First of all, the theory encourages positive workplace relationships. especially between managers and employees. Also, the wellbeing of employees is a central focus and considered to be much more important in comparison to Taylorism, prompting managers to show a vested interest and learn more about them as people on an individual basis, which in turn helps to increase the morale of the workforce as employees feel valued and appreciated, leading to increased levels of employee morale, retention, motivation and productivity. However, Mayo's theory of human relations has faced criticism in the past and it's very important to understand why.
Firstly, the theory of human relations is primarily based on the outcome of the Hawthorne experiment which was conducted by Elton Mayo and many critics suggest that this was unscientific in its design and lacks sufficient supportive evidence to justify any conclusions that were drawn. Arguing that the selection of work and environment the experiment took place in were both unscientific and the number of participants selected for the experiment was simply too small. Furthermore, conflict in the workplace is almost inevitable and often required for progress, yet critics suggest that the theory is based on employees and managers simply cooperating with one another, with no thought of the potential for conflict to happen and how it could impact the motivation and productivity levels of employees if it did.
Another key critique to consider is how the theory oversimplifies human behaviour, as it assumes satisfied workers will automatically be productive workers, which is simply not true. There is evidence to support social factors helping to positively influence motivation and productivity, however there is also a vast array of additional factors which contribute to every employee in the workplace, and these are simply overlooked by Elton Mayo. So that's it, Elton Mayo's human relations school of thought.
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