Examine the outcomes of Hawthorne experiments of Elton Mayo.

 The Hawthorne experiments, attempted to study the effects of physical conditions such as light and temperature on productivity. But the major outcome was the impact of social conditions at work on productivity. The findings of the investigations led to certain conclusions such as:

·         Work Is a group activity.

·         The need for recognition, security and sense of belonging is more important in determining worker's morale and productivity than the physical working conditions.

·         The worker’s attitudes and effectiveness are conditioned by social demands from both inside and outside the work plant.

·         Conditions within the work plan exercise strong social controls over the work  habits and attitudes of the individual worker.

·         Animportant discovery of the Hawthorne experiments was that workers had a strong need to cooperate and communicate with fellow workers. Mayo opined that the desire for cooperative activity persists in ordinary person and can be utilised by intelligent and straight forward management.

·         Mayo postulated that management should acquire social skills and use them to secure worker’s cooperation.

Elton Mayo emphasised on social aspects of work, taking precedence over functional organisational structure, two-way communication from Chicf Executive to workers and vice-versa, as well as cohesive and good leadership. The experiments of Elton Mayo brought out that informal approaches and work groups with focus on human emotions, sentiments and interactions played an important role in increasing organizational productivity. The management has to strive in developing skills in understanding human behaviour and interpersonal skills in counseling, motivating, leading and communicating.

          Elton Mayo, on the basis of experiments, concluded that generally the worker- management adversarial relationship stemmed from worker's misunderstanding and management distrust. Also, giving importance to economic efficiency rather than social cohesion aggravated the situation. The work performance ofemployees depended on job content as well as social issues. The management, according to Mayo, needed to align the interests of workers with those of the organisation and secure their participation. But even more important, the studies were interpreted by succeeding generations of management scientists, as validating the idea that unquantifiable relationships (or “human relations”) between workers and managers and among workers themselves. Were significant determinants of workers’ efficiency (Henry, 2003).

Subcribe on Youtube - IGNOU SERVICE

For PDF copy of Solved Assignment

WhatsApp Us - 9113311883(Paid)