What was the Human-Relationship School of Administration?

At the beginning of the 20th century, the perspective of workers began to change a bit.

Far from seeing them as mere cogs in the well-oiled machine that factories were, employers began to understand that workers were people, human beings who relate to each other each.

It was in this context that the help of psychologists was requested to understand how to increase productivity changing what was needed in the field of work, which would shape a new psychological current organizational: the human-relational school of administration.

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What is the human-relational school of administration?

The human-relational school of management is an organizational stream that emerged in response to the strong trends in scientific management of the 1930s that, due to an abusive use of mechanical and rigorous methods, they did not have the most important fact: workers are human and, therefore, work cannot be understood by dehumanizing it.

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Research on labor productivity had been based on conceiving the worker as a machine, a mere cog of the factory whose emotions and desires were not to be taken into account because they simply did not lack. The problem was that the motivational and social aspect of the workers was important, a fact that was evidenced in strikes and sabotage, unions arose and all kinds of actions were carried out in favor of the rights of the workers.

It is for this reason that it was decided to change the focus, to better understand what it was that would improve the performance of workers, what social aspects influencedThis being one of the fundamental pillars of the human-relational school of administration. Among his greatest characters we find the Australian psychologist Elton Mayo, whose mission was to study attitudes and workers' complaints in order to know what it was that caused decreases in the rate of production.

May decided to do one of his experiments at the Western Electric Company, in which he obtained valuable data that helped him to conclude that it was necessary to change some parameters of the organization in order to offer its workers a more humane treatment. By treating employees as people and not as mere cogs of the company, a noticeable increase in production could be achieved.

Following his experiment, the companies he worked for and recommended his changes improved significantly, this being the step from psychology to the world of organizations and the psychological study of work.

Although it can be said that Mayo was not the only one (other important figures were Mary Parker Follet, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Fritz Roethlisbery and Vilfredo Federico Pareto), yes that his figure is related to having helped change the focus in the world of organizations, giving I began an era of studies related to human behavior in the workplace that initiated changes in the basic principles business.

Also one of the new visions that the human-relational school of administration brought with it is that the individual cannot be studied as an isolated entity, but as part of a group. The worker is not a person only interested in earning a salary But you also want to feel that you are part of something, that your coworkers have some kind of appreciation for you and that there is something more than money that calls you to come to your job.

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Background of this school

At the beginning of the 20th century, a series of studies began at Harvard University, which linked the science of management with human relationships. In 1911, the same institution began to teach courses that began the psychological approach to the science of administration, introducing the idea that the human element was very important in any company, being what keeps it active and alive.

This new mentality allowed the introduction of a series of reforms in the world of organizations that allowed to improve the quality of life of employees. Among them we can find some that, although today they are basic and are part of our labor rights, at that time they were seen as generous concessions such as the introduction of rest periods, the reduction of the working day and the application of some variants in the system of payment.

But despite these advances, no answers had yet been found as to what could influence efficiently increasing productivity. Fortunately, it would not take too long since, with the arrival of Elton Mayo and his new visions about work, it was found that productivity could increase if certain factors were taken into account social. Among these factors were the morale of the workers, their sense of belonging and the feeling of being considered as useful parts of the company..

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Mayo Investigations

The studies carried out at Hawthorne are considered a classic in the world of organizational psychology. These were carried out by Elton Mayo primarily at the Western Electric Company, located in the Hawthorne neighborhood of Chicago. The objective of this research was determine what was the relationship between the efficiency of the workers and the satisfaction of the people within the production levels.

Although it can be said that this experiment was not born out of nowhere, since Mayo took into account data taken in other previous research, it has been transcendental for the understanding of the factors that increase the potential human. This investigation can be divided into two phases.

First phase

In 1925 the American National Academy of Sciences carried out studies that aimed to find the relationship between lighting in the workplace and productivity. What they were was studied the effects of lighting on personal work performance, which allowed the researchers to find out how certain psychological conditions can influence productivity.

In this research it was concluded that the more light there was in the work area, the higher the productivity would be. Added to this, another of the conclusions of the study was that the social work environment was an aspect to take into account when considering labor productivity.

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Second stage

This phase consisted of making an experimental record of the working conditions in normal hours and then measuring the production rate. The perception of the workers consisted of an improvement in their individual efforts after having been incentivized with wages. Later, a few minutes of rest were introduced between the morning and afternoon sessions, in addition to establishing a work week that had five working days, remaining on Saturday free.

In the year 1923 Elton Mayo he captained an investigation in a textile factory located in the city of Philadelphia, a company in which serious production problems had been detected and suffered annual staff turnover of up to 250%. In order to see if he could solve the serious problems of this organization, Mayo decided to introduce a period broader rest period, in addition to giving workers the opportunity to decide when they would stop machines.

Thanks to these new measures, May managed to make the company significantly increase its production, reduce turnover and, added to this, there was solidarity among co-workers. The textile company was no longer a simple place to work in exchange for a salary, but a place to share time with people who got along well and were motivated by what they did, also working more rested.

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Experiment at Western Electric Company

In 1927 a new experiment was started at the Western Electric Company. This research aimed to re-determine which was the relationship between worker efficiency and lighting intensity, assuming as in the 1925 experiment that the more light, the more productivity.

This experiment was coordinated by Elton Mayo himself and became one of the most famous investigations within the area of administration, in addition to being a benchmark within the human-relational school of the administration. It should be said that the experiment lasted longer than expected, since the researchers realized that that the results were affected by some psychological variables, which is why it had to be prolonged until 1932.

The Western Electric Company was quite an important factory in its day, since it was in charge of making telephone components and other electronic equipment in times when electronics was still in its infancy. Its business policy was to ensure the well-being of its workers by paying good wages and offering optimal working conditions.

Because it apparently treated its employees so well, some feel that the company had no interest in increasing production, but wanted to get to know its workers better. Either way, The organization asked Mayo to carry out a study and from this the following conclusions were drawn:

The level of production may be conditioned by the physical capabilities of the worker, but social norms are an important factor.
The individual behavior of the employee is fully supported in the group. A worker does not act in isolation in an organization.
Any change in the production method may involve a reaction among the workers.
The greater the interaction, the greater the productive capacity.
If the employee feels good, he will be more productive in his job.

Characteristics of the human-relational school of administration

Now that we have seen the historical background of this current and how some experiments carried out during the first half of the last century have contributed to the view that workers are more than just people working, below we will see what are the main characteristics of the human-relational school of administration.

It focuses on people and their different behaviors.
This current is based on the importance of the social factor within the production processes.
He appeals for the autonomy of the employee and is committed to trust and openness among the people who make up the organization.
The worker is not a production machine, but a human being within his work environment, who is not isolated from others and who needs collective support.

Benefits of this school

Before the emergence of this trend, what predominated in the workplace were the more "scientific" approaches, in a sense that he considered the worker as a machine in charge of producing, leaving aside and ignoring the values of him as a person and his human rights. Basically, you could say that the worker was objectified, he was seen as an object, a part of the industrial gear of the time, nothing more.

But this changed with the arrival of the human-relational school of administration. This current has as its main advantage the vision of workers as human beings in a work environment, thus incorporating a more humane treatment of employees. The human-relational school of administration focused on the physical and psychological well-being of the employee, arguing that this would achieve an effective increase in production.

Added to this, another of the beneficial points of this school is that allowed to study the working human being as a social entity that is part of a collective and that cannot be isolated from the rest or from their work environment. His productivity depends on factors such as how comfortable he is with his colleagues, how motivating he is you think the space in which you have to work or if you can rest adequately between shifts and turn. For these reasons, the human-relationshipist school defends the optimization of the work area.

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Main disadvantage

But not everything are advantages. Although it may surprise, this current brings with it a problem that, although it is the only important disadvantage, should not be ignored for that reason. Because it can be considered that it takes a point of view very contrary to the scientific conceptualization of the work, you run the risk that the researchers of this trend completely disengage from the scientific administration, which can cause them to fall into subjectivities or sentimentalities that deviate them from the original objective, which is to guarantee the production of organizations.