...Assignment The Implication of Hawthorne Study in 21st Century Ashab Anis Joy ID: 2012-1-10-255 Class: MGT Course Code: 101 Sec: 7 Semester: Fall East West University Bachelor of Business Administration East West University 20th November 2012 Introduction The Hawthorne Experiments were conducted between 1927 and 1932 at the works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. Basically the aim of these experiments was to ” attempt to reduce worker dissatisfaction and resist trade union influence by the putting in place of a paternalistic package of social and recreational benefits calculated to sustain workers “loyalty” (Sheldrake 105:1996). Many little assignments were conducted in hope of putting into practice the above theory. Despite the economic progress brought about in party by Scientific Management, critics were calling attention to the severe labour/management conflict, apathy, boredom, and wasted human resources. These concerns lead a number of researchers to examine the discrepancy between how an organisation was supposed to work versus how the workers actually behaved. In addition, factors like World War I, developments in psychology (e.g. Freud) and later the depression, all brought into question some of the basic assumptions of the Scientific Management School. One of the primary critics of the time, Elton Mayo, claimed that this ‘alienation’ stemmed from the breakdown of the social structures caused by industrialisation, the factory system, and its related...
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...research into worker’s behaviour was later criticised by Daniel Bell and other sociologists. What lessons can Singapore businesses learn from Mayo and his later detractors? George Elton Mayo (1880-1949) was an Australian psychologist, sociologist and organizational theorist. He led a team together with Whitehead and Roethlisberger, set to study the relationship between productivity and physical working conditions. His research results have led to the establishing of new theories like the human relation (Hawthorne) and motivation theory. The Hawthorne study, a new approach that is being introduced by the sociologist, has been called the human relation approach of management. This approach was generated, because the positive aspect of the variables of the scientific management, and the focuses on mechanical and psychological variables, could not bring about a positive response in work behavior and efficiency at work. The key contributions are contained into two points; organizational situation to be viewed in social, economic and technical terms; and the social process of group behavior which can be studied in clinical method analogous. These studies have a historical importance to the behavioral approach of the analysis of management problems. The practical experiments allowed Elton Mayo to deduce the importance of groups in affecting the behavior of individuals at work. Physical conditions or financial incentives had little motivational value, thus concluding that working performance...
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...The Hawthorne Experiments The Hawthorne experiments were groundbreaking studies in human relations that were conducted between 1924 and 1932 at Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in Chicago. Originally designed as illumination studies to determine the relationship between lighting and productivity, the initial tests were sponsored by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1927 a research team from the Harvard Business School was invited to join the studies after the illumination tests drew unanticipated results. Two additional series of tests, the relay-assembly tests and the bank-wiring tests, followed the illumination tests. The studies assumed the label Hawthorne experiments or studies from the location of the Western Electric plant. Concluded by 1932, the Hawthorne studies, with emphasis on a new interpretation of group behavior, were the basis for the school of human relations. ILLUMINATION TESTS In the early 1920s Chicago's Western Electric Hawthorne Works employed 12,000 workers. The plant was a primary manufacturer of telephones, and in 1924 the company provided a site to cooperate with the NRC on a series of test room studies to determine the relationship between illumination and worker efficiency. The basic idea was to vary and record levels of illumination in a test room with the expectation that as lighting was increased, productivity would too. In another test room, illumination was decreased, with the correlating...
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...Over the years management thought has been changed due to the applied research of the Hawthorne effect. Work productivity and social behaviour and interaction have influenced management to further look at ways to improve and sustain the outcome of their workers. However one can see why a person would consider the Hawthorne studies as inefficient and not capable of truly deserving to be recognised as the fundamental change for management and being scientifically correct in the research and study used. The effects of the Hawthorne studies towards management provided managers with a different way to lead and create an understanding of their worker’s behaviour. Giving insight on different ways the productivity of its workers occurred, the future of management was influenced by the methodologies created by the Hawthorne studies. However the studies themselves cannot be truly deserving of its scientific findings, it has contributed very much to the change of management. The Hawthorne effect provides management with a better understanding of the work behaviour and attitudes of physical, economic and social variables (Pennock, G.A 1930). During the years 1927 to 1932 of the industrial revolution the series of investigations for work behaviour were conducted with the use of five selected women at Western electric factory, Hawthorne, Chicago. The research found that over time productivity continued to rise due to the experiments socialisation of workers (Obrenovic, Z 2014). Even if...
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...management functions and the employer-employee relationship? Bramel’s theories on the Hawthorne Studies help to inform my understanding of contemporary management functions and the employer-employee relationship by providing a critical analysis of the Hawthorne Studies, which were a major contributor in the development of management practices and the human relations movement. The Hawthorne Studies were a group of experiments undertaken in the 1920's and 1930's at Western Electrics Hawthorne Plant that provided new insights into individual and group behaviours. The study was lead be George Elton Mayo, he concluded that individual and group behaviour are closely related. Mayo concluded that social standards in the workplace were a greater factor in determining the production output of individuals then other factors such as money and environmental factors. The results of the Hawthorne studies are widely disputed due to mismanagement and corruption of some of the experiments. Bramel highlights the corrupted elements of the experiments, particularly the removal and replacement of participants mid experiment, and holds the studies in a negative light. Bramel is not the only one to cast doubt on the validity of the experiments however, there have been many opponents to the hawthorn studies’ findings over the years. Alex Carey was one of the most vocal opponents of the validity of the Hawthorne studies’ findings. Carey was particularly vocal on the dismissal and replacement of experiment...
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...KEY FINDINGS AND PROFILE OF HAWTHORE STUDIES 1.0 Introduction In the early twentieth century, Elton Mayo, a famous professor of industrial management from Harvard, carried out studies at the Western Electric company’s Hawthorne works, As Jiao(2009) said “with the attempt to find the factors affecting workers’ productivity, the studies included a series of behavior experiments” which was then called as “Hawthorne Experiments”. Regardless of some controversies, conclusions from the studies not only help Mayo extended his own theory in management, but also give loads of enlightenment to other fields (such as educations、sociology 、organizational behavior, etc.) This essay will show the key findings of Hawthorne studies as well as its repercussions in many fields. In the first section, operations and conclusions of each experiment will be simply introduced. Secondly, a series of new ideas originated from these findings by Mayo will be elaborated and also its applications in practice. The final part is to show some criticism on both Mayo’s research method and his theory. 2.1 Experiment One ---------Illumination studies During 1924 to 1927, Mayo’s group tested a department’s productivity under all levels of illumination in order to discover the effects of light on efficiency. However, they ended in failure for there were almost always increasing output during the process. (But, latter it was considered as an evidence of Hawthorne Effect) 2.2 Experiment Two ------- Relay...
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...Do the Hawthorne Studies truly deserve to be recognised as producing a fundamental change in the development of management thought? The Hawthorne Studies were a set of studies carried out by Western Electric between 1924 and 1932 in conjunction with researchers from the Harvard Business School, led by Elton Mayo, at their Hawthorne Works plant (Sonnenfeld 1985 p. 112). Researchers initially set out to find the effects of lighting upon levels of production, but ultimately the evidence gathered lead to a significant shift in management thought: from Scientific Management to Human Relations (Hassard 2012 p. 1432). The methods of the studies and their originality have been censured by some scholars, some of whom feel this invalidates the findings and therefore the significance of the studies, but, despite their flaws, it is impossible to deny the far reaching influence of these studies upon the development of management thought. Scientific management was developed by Frederick Taylor to improve industrial efficiency (Taylor 1911), it was this theory of management which Western Electric was using to direct their employees at the time the Hawthorne Studies commenced. Some of the key principles of the theory were: that managers should scientifically determine how a task should be completed most efficiently and; that managers should then select the best person for the job, train them to do their tasks efficiently, and monitor performance to ensure these specifications are met (Law...
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...Study Guide for Exam #1 Anything from the readings or lecture is fair game but I hope this guide will assist you in your study. The History of Management Thought An outline Classical Management Scientific Management Frederick Taylor Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Henry Gantt (Gantt chart) Henry Ford Bureaucratic/Administrative Management Max Weber Henri Fayol Transition to Behavioral Management Hugo Munsterberg Behavioral Management Human Relations Movement Chester Barnard (Acceptance Theory of Authority) Douglas McGregor Dale Carnegie Behavioral Science Mary Parker Follet Hawthorne Studies (Elton Mayo) Operations Management Information Management Systems Management Contingency Management What are the four functions of management? What two branches constitute Classical Management? How are they similar? How are they different? What are the basic ideas of Scientific Management? (Think Frederick Taylor’s principles.) What contributions did Frederick Taylor, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, and Henry Gantt make to the field? What is Bureaucratic/Administrative Management? Who are the major contributors to this school of thought and what are their contributions? Please be familiar with Fayol’s Universal Principles of Management. What is a bureaucracy and what are its main principles? What are the major contributions of Hugo Munsterberg, Mary Parker Follet, and Chester Barnard? What are the basic ideas of Behavioral Management...
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...different ways: - Craft-style—each worker did all 18 steps/ tasks. - Production—each worker specialized in one step/ task. 2-6 Job Specialization and the Division of Labor • Job Specialization – process by which a division of labor occurs as different workers specialize in specific tasks over time 2-7 Job Specialization and the Division of Labor • Workers who specialized became much more skilled at their specific tasks • Increasing job specialization increases efficiency and leads to higher organizational performance 2-8 F.W. Taylor and Scientific Management Scientific Management The systematic study of the relationships between people and tasks for the purpose of redesigning the work process to increase efficiency. 2-9 F.W. Taylor (1865-1915) US Mechanical Engineer & Consultant 2-10 Four Principles of Scientific Management 1) Study the way workers perform their tasks, gather all the informal job knowledge that workers possess and experiment with ways of improving how tasks are performed 2-11 Four Principles of Scientific Management 2) Codify the new methods of performing tasks into written rules and standard operating procedures 2-12 Four Principles of Scientific Management 3) Carefully select workers who possess skills and...
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...Part-A Objective Questions 1. The two distinct dimensions of leadership behavior, job-centered and employee-centered was developed by a. IOWA studies b. Michigan studies c. Ohio state university studies d. Situational leadership e. Hawthorne studies 2. --------------- is a process by which people come to know about and understand each other a. Social perception b. Self perception c. Perceptual distortion d. perceptual selectivity e. Halo effect 3. Blake and Mouton’s contribution to leadership studies is a. Trait approach b. Path-goal model c. Managerial grid d. group approach e. individual approach 4. “Leaders and followers raise one another to higher level of morality and motivation” describes a. Situational leadership b. Transactional leadership c. Transformational leadership d. charismatic leadership e. referent leader 5. The potential ability to influence behaviour to change the course of events, to overcome resistance and to get people do things that they would not otherwise do is a. Power b. Control c. Motivation d. authority e. delegation 6. The power that comes by virtue of fact that the person holds a position is a. Reward power b. Referent power c. legitimate power d. legal power e. political power 7. -------------- refers to the use of deceit in relationship and manipulating others. ...
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...LECTURE NOTES I. Basic management functions have been around “forever.” However, we learn more about management as time goes on and things change that require adjustments, or sometimes, quite different ways of doing things. This chapter studies past management thought and practice so that we can learn the things that work well, in which situations, and the reasons that they do. The chapter also encourages us to keep looking for changes that will require adjustments so that we can continue to improve our knowledge about management. II. Environmental Factors Influencing Management Thought. Major factors that influence management thought are: A. Economic influences related to the availability, production, and distribution of resources within society. B. Social influences. These are the factors that relate to the aspects of a culture that influence interpersonal relationships. C. Political influences; the factors that relate to the impact of political institutions on individuals and organizations. D. Technological influences relate to advances and refinements in any of the devices used in conjunction with conducting business. E. Global influences; those that relate to the pressures to improve quality, productivity, and costs as organizations attempt to compete in a worldwide marketplace. Note: Refer to both UPS (Facing the Challenge/Meeting the Challenge) and Harley-Davidson (At the Forefront) for examples...
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...management and labor. Rather than quarrel over profits, both sides should try to increase production; by so doing, he believed, profits would rise to such an extent that labor and management would no longer have to fight over them. In short, Taylor believed that management and labor had a common interest in increasing productivity. Taylor based his management system on production-line time studies. Instead of relying on traditional work methods, he analyzed and timed steel workers' movements on a series of jobs. Using time study as his base, he broke each job down into its components and designed the quickest and best methods of performing each component. In this way he established how much workers should be able to do with the equipment and materials at hand. He also encouraged employers to pay more productive workers at a higher rate than others, using a "scientifically correct" rate that would benefit both company and worker. Thus, workers were urged to surpass their previous performance standards to earn more pay Taylor called his plan the differential rate system. CONTRIBUTIONS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT THEORY The modem assembly line pours out finished products faster than Taylor could ever have imagined. This production "miracle" is just one legacy of...
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...management thinking? 2. What are the insights come from the behavioral management approaches? 3. What are the foundations of modern management thinking? CHAPTER 2 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After completing this chapter, students should be able to: • State the underlying assumption of the classical management approaches. • List the principles of Taylor’s scientific management. • List three of Fayol’s “principles” for guiding managerial action. • List the key characteristics of bureaucracy and explain why Weber considered it an ideal form of organization. • Identify possible disadvantages of bureaucracy in today’s environment. • Explain Follett’s concept of organizations as communities. • Define the Hawthorne effect. • Explain how the Hawthorne findings influenced the development of management thought. • Explain how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs operates in the workplace. • Distinguish between Theory X and Theory Y assumptions, and explain why McGregor favored Theory Y. • Explain Argyris’s criticism that traditional organizational practices are inconsistent with mature adult personalities. • Define system, subsystem, and open system. • Apply these concepts to describe the operations of an organization in your community. • Define contingency thinking, knowledge management, and a learning organization. • List characteristics of learning organizations. • Describe evidence-based management and its link with scientific methods. CHAPTER 2 OVERVIEW ...
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...workplace efficiency was emphasized as well as the standardization of tasks and assignments. The father of the “Scientific Management Theory” is Frederick Winslow Taylor. It is also referred to as “Taylorism.” Frederick Taylor sought to expand productivity by increasing the efficiency of the worker. He believed that the worker and management shared a common interest to increase productivity, therefore improving profits. As an engineer of a US steel company, Taylor conducted studies and observed various tasks, finding the most effective way for each task to be accomplished. These were known as his Time and Motion Studies (NetMBA). He would use a stopwatch and time a worker's sequence of motions, examining the outcome of each task. Taylor condensed his observations into four principles he believed should be used and followed: Taylor's Four Principles of Scientific Management: 1. Replace working by "rule of thumb," or simple habit and common sense, and instead use the scientific method to study work...
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...Evolution of the Management Theory ------------------------------------------------- Early Management 3000 – 2500 BC The Egyptian pyramids are proof that projects of tremendous scope, employing tens of thousands of people, were completed in ancient times. It took more than 100, 000 workers some 20 years to construct a single pyramid. Someone had to plan what was to be done, organize people and materials to do it make sure those workers got the work done, and impose some controls to ensure that everything was done as planned. That someone was manager. 1400s At the arsenal of Venice, warships were floated along the canals, and each stop, materials and riggings were added to the ship. In addition, the Venetians used warehouse an inventory systems to keep track of materials, human resource management functions to manage the labor force (including wine breaks), and an accounting system to keep track of revenues and costs. 1776 Wealth of the Nations book by Adam Smith was published. Adam Smith argued that the economic advantages of the division of labor breaking down jobs into narrow, repetitive tasks. 1780s – mid-1800s Industrial Revolution came with the birth of the corporation. Large and efficient factories pumping out products, someone needed to forecast demand, make sure there were adequate supplies of materials, assigned tasks to workers, and so forth. Classical Approaches Beginning around the turn of the twentieth century, the discipline...
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