The theory of human relations and its application to organizations

The world of work has changed a lot throughout history. From the typical trades of the Middle Ages to the large and small companies in which we work today, including work in factories after the Revolution. Industrial, the changes both in terms of the vision of work and in what involves the worker or the way in which he should be treated have gone happening.

Within this field, numerous studies have been carried out from various disciplines such as psychology, leading some of them to changes in the vision of the worker by society and employers and the importance of his well-being in his productivity.

Although initially the worker was seen as a "lazy" who had to be motivated mainly with the salary, little by little They were observing that there were a large number of factors that influence the worker, his productivity and his general well-being. This progressive change would be greatly helped by the Hawthorne studies and the elaboration of the theory of human relations, about which we are going to talk throughout this article.

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Precedents in organizational psychology

Although the fact that the human and relational factor is important in the workplace is nowadays something considered common and logical, the truth is that at the time this notion was introduced it meant a whole revolution. And it is that the theory of human relations, elaborated by Elton MayoIt began to develop around the 1930s.

At that time, the general conception of organizations and the work in them was a classic vision, focused on production and that he saw the worker as a lazy and idle entity that needed to be spurred on by wages to work, or else he understood him as a machine that had to be guided from leadership positions (the only ones on whom the fact of organizing and dominating the company).

It would not be until the emergence of psychology and its application to the workplace and industry that the factors that affect the worker would begin to be analyzed from a humanistic perspective and psychological. Thanks to it and an increasing need to both humanize and democratize production (dissatisfaction, abuses and worker revolts were frequent), it would come to the development of a conception closer to the worker in the industrial field.

The theory of human relations

The theory of human relations is a theory of the psychology of organizations, which proposes that the most important part of an organization is the human and interactive and that the worker's behavior is more related to belonging to a social group, their well-being with the environment and social norms within said group than with the type of task performed, how it is structured or with the receipt of a specific salary (which was believed to be the only motivator of the worker).

Basically, it sets the importance of the social environment in which the worker develops and the psychological impact of said environment when it comes to explaining behaviour, performance and work productivity.

In this theory, which appears as a reaction to the excessive control over the task that existed during the time, the focus interest ceases to be in the task itself and in how the organization is structured to focus on the worker and the network of social relations and friendship that forms within the organization.

Likewise, the worker is no longer seen as an independent element whose performance depends solely on his willingness to begin to observe that it depends to a large extent on his relationship with the group and how it is organized.

Moreover, thanks to the studies carried out, the power of the network and the links formed informally between workers, the importance of the perception of social support and the affectation of these processes when it comes to improving performance or reduce it to conform to the norm of the belonging group. It would also allow the development of new systems and strategies aimed at improving and optimizing the development of members of the organization, as well as aspects such as the assessment of communications and feedback to the employees.

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Hawthorne's experiments

Human relations theory and subsequent developments stem from the aforementioned aspects, but probably one of the The most relevant milestones that led to its birth were the Hawthorne experiments, carried out at the Hawthorne factory of Elton Mayo and others. collaborators.

Initially these experiments began in 1925 with the initial intention was look for a relationship between lighting and employee productivity, May would begin to assess the working conditions (relatively good for the time) and the performance of the workers in different lighting conditions. In this aspect they did not find great variability, but they were able to locate other variables of great importance: psychosocial ones.

After that, they would begin to analyze, from 1928 to 1940, these humanistic and psychosocial factors. In a first phase, the working conditions and the effect of the feelings and emotions of the employees towards work, the environment and even with respect to their role in it would be analyzed. From this it was deduced that personal consideration played a large role in the performance and satisfaction of workers.

It was in the second phase that one of the great divergences with the more classical theories was found: the The behavior of the workers was more linked to the social and organizational than to the characteristics themselves. individual. This was achieved through a series of interviews in which the researchers sought for the workers to express their assessment of their work.

In a third phase, the work groups and the interaction between workers were analyzed, with experiments in which a payment system was used in which a high wage was only maintained if there was an increase in total production, to which workers responded by standardizing their productivity to increase it little by little by initially reducing its level the most efficient to ensure that everyone could gradually increase the total performance: they sought to be consistent in their performance so that all members of the group could have some stability.

There was both a sanction for those who did not respect the group norm (whoever did not comply with the informal norm was pressured) as a search for conformity towards the majority.

The fourth and last phase focused on studying the interaction between the formal organization of the company and the informal of the employees, looking for an interaction in which the workers could express their problems and conflicts. The conclusions of these experiments would lead to the generation of an interest in the employee and his ties, which would gradually expand.