Essay about Scientific Management and Human Relations Movement

Words: 2040
Pages: 9

“Compare and contrast the attitudes of the Scientific School of Management thought (Taylor et al) with those of the Human Relations Movement (Mayo et al) with regard to people at work”

“Getting things done through people”, according to Mary Parker Follet (1941) is management. Management is said to have no fixed definition, but different authorities on management have different views on it.
There are many theories on management. The Classical Theory comprising Scientific Management of Taylor, Administrative Management of Fayol, Bureaucratic Organization of Weber. The Neo-Classical Theory includes the Human Relations Movement of Mayo along with others like Roethsilberger and Dickson and the Behavioural Schools of Maslow, McGregor,
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R, 2000) This means that the workman would not only be rewarded for accomplishing his tasks, but would also be punished for failing to do so.
This meant that the job of the worker had to be analyzed, objectives and targets had to be set in terms of what was to be done and how it was to be done and a standard reward had to be fixed for the amount of work done within a certain time-scale by the manager and it was the worker’s duty to complete the assigned task. The above process also illustrates the division of work and the separation between the management and the workforce. (Note that most of the principles of scientific management are applied)

Mayo believed that financial reward was not the only motivation for the workers. The results of the Hawthorne Experiments showed that “social bonds within working groups were so strong that group interests were sometimes placed above individual financial rewards.” (web, 2008)
“These groups can become powerful driving forces in accomplishing organizational goals if they see their own goals as satisfied by working for organizational goals.” (Hersey. P, 2001)
The above inferences led to the demise of the ‘economic man’ shown by Taylor as being lazy and responding to only monetary incentives and rise of the ‘social man’ with a desire to be continuously associated with people.