The Human Relations Movement

7/28/2019 The Human Relations Movement

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ed in scaleand scope,the nine-yearstudy took

place at themassiveHawthorne

Works plantoutside ofChicago andgenerated amountain of

documents,from hourlyperformancecharts tointerviews

withthousands ofemployees.Harvard

BusinessSchools rolein theexperimentsrepresented amilestone inthe dawn ofthe human

relationsmovementand a shift inthe study ofmanagementfrom ascientific to a


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multi-disciplinaryapproach.Baker

Librarysexhaustivearchivalrecord of theexperimentsreveals theart andscience of

this seminalbehavioralstudyandthe questionsand theoriesit generatedabout therelationshipof

productivityto the needsandmotivationsof theindustrial

worker.

The Hawthorne PlantAny company controlling many

thousand workerstendsto lack any


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telephone industry untilthe time of its break-upin 1984. Like otherconglomerates of its

day, the Bell TelephoneSystem, as the entireenterprise was known,combined production,distribution, andmarketing under onecorporation as a way tocentralize its operations

and eliminatecompetition. WesternElectric, themanufacturing unit ofthe company, producedtelephones, cables,transmissionequipment, andswitching equipment.

Haw

thorne Works for

the Manufacture

of Power

Apparatus, ca.

1920Construction of

the Western ElectricHawthorne Works onover 100 acres in Cicero,Illinois, began in 1905.
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By 1929 more than40,000 men and

women reported towork at the massive

plant, which includedoffices, factories, ahospital, fire brigade,laundry facilities, and agreenhouse. Employees

were assigned toprecisely measuredtasks in highly

specializeddepartments, fromswitchboard wiring topunch-and-die toolmaking. Themanufacture of someequipment, such asautomatic telephoneexchanges, required

hundreds of separateassembly and inspectionoperations, and

Western Electricbecame one of theforerunners in applyingscientific management(inspired in part by

Frederick Taylors timeand motion studies) toits production units.

Employee Welfare


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We stand on the threshold of a new

era in which attention and interest

are beginning to shift fromthings

that are worked with, to the

worker; from the machinery of

industry, to the man who made,

owns, or operates it.

Robert Yerkes, Chairman of the Personnel

Research Federation, National Research

Council, 1922

Track and Field Events, ca. 1925

In the early 1900s laborunions, socialreformers, journalists,and photographers

brought to national

attention poor workingconditions experiencedby industrial workers.In the ensuing economicclimate of the late 1920sand 1930s, manyexecutives came to


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believe that thefoundation of businessand of a democraticsociety itself rested in

part in affirming therole of the worker. Toinspire company loyalty,discourage highemployee turnover andunionization, andpresent a good face tothe public, corporate

managers began tofocus on the well-beingof the employee throughthe practice of welfarecapitalism.

In addition to pensions,sick pay, disability

benefits, and stock

purchase plans,Western Electricworkers couldparticipate in a range ofrecreational andeducational programsfrom running meets,tennis games, and

baseball leagues to

lunchtime concerts,beauty pageants, andevening classes. Thecompanys accidentprevention programsincluded the


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introduction of safetyshoes, eye goggles, andguards for heavymachinery. To better

understand workerproductivity and jobsatisfaction, WesternElectric becameincreasingly interestedin studies from thesocial, behavioral, andmedical sciences.

Illumination Studies andRelay Assembly Test Room

They say figures dont lie, but we

have shown that we can take a set

of figures and prove anything wewant to.

Donald Chipman, Supervisor, Western Electric,

1931


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Illumination Study, 1926

Research onproductivity at massivemanufacturingcomplexes like theHawthorne Works wasmade possible throughpartnerships amongindustries, universities,

and government. In the1920s, with supportfrom the NationalResearch Council, theRockefeller Foundation,and eventually HarvardBusiness School,

Western Electricundertook a series of

behavioral experiments.The first, a sequence ofillumination tests from1924 to 1927, set out todetermine the effects oflighting on worker


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efficiency in threeseparate manufacturingdepartments. Accountsof the study revealed no

significant correlationbetween productivityand light levels. Theresults promptedresearchers toinvestigate other factorsaffecting worker output.

Per

formance

Recording

DeviceThe next

experiments beginningin 1927 focused on therelay assemblydepartment, where theelectromagneticswitches that madetelephone connectionspossible were produced.

The manufacture ofrelays required therepetitive assembly ofpins, springs,armatures, insulators,coils, and screws.

Western Electric


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produced over 7 millionrelays annually. As thespeed of individual

workers determined

overall productionlevels, the effects offactors like rest periodsand work hours in thisdepartment were ofparticular interest to thecompany.

Wom

en in the Relay

Assembly Test

Room, ca. 1930In a

separate test room, anoperator prepared partsfor five women toassemble. The womendropped the completedrelays into a chute

where a recordingdevice punched a holein a continuously

moving paper tape. Thenumber of holesrevealed the productionrate for each worker.Researchers wereunsure if productivity


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increased in thisexperiment because ofthe introduction of restperiods, shorter

working hours, wageincentives, thedynamics of a smallergroup, or the specialattention the womenreceived. In 1928,George Pennock, asuperintendent at

Western Electric, turnedto Elton Mayo atHarvard BusinessSchool for guidance.Were going to have aman come out from oneof the colleges and see

what he can tell usabout what weve found

out, Pennock wrote. 1

1

Daily History Record, Relay Assembly Test

Room, February 20, 1928, Western Electric

Company, Hawthorne Studies Collection, Baker

Library, Harvard Business School.

Enter Elton MayoSo long as commerce specializes in

business methods which take no
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account of human nature and social

motives, so long may we expect

strikes and sabotage to be the

ordinary accompaniment of industry.

Elton Mayo, Professor of Industrial

Management, Harvard Business School, 1920

E

lton Mayo, ca. 1950

Elton Mayo was born inAdelaide, Australia in1880. Affable, witty, anda brilliant lecturer, he

taught mental andmoral philosophy at theUniversity ofQueensland, where heconducted psycho-pathological tests on


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World War I shell-shockvictims. Well-read inthe works of Freud,Jung, and Lvy-Bruhl,

he developed a closerelationship withanthropologistBronislaw Malinowskiand began to formulatea view of industrydrawn fromanthropology,

psychology, andphysiology. Mayobelieved that unlockingthe psyche of the worker

was key tounderstandingindustrial unrest athome and abroad.

In 1923, Mayo became aresearch associate at theUniversity ofPennsylvanias WhartonSchool, studying theeffects of fatigue onemployee turnover. Hisscience-based researchand multi-disciplinary

approach caught theattention of Wallace B.Donham, Dean ofHarvard BusinessSchool. In 1925,Donham wrote to


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Harvard President A.Lawrence Lowell askingfor funds to appointMayo associate

professor in the study ofhuman relations. Lowellat first responded thathe could not justify theexpense or risk ofsupporting a newdiscipline, but Donhamconvinced him of the

value of the field forboth industry andsociety and Mayosunique qualifications forthe job.

Human Relations and

Harvard Business SchoolThe subject of human relations in

industry is one of the most

important things in the whole field

of business and one which we must

investigate and teach.

Wallace B. Donham, Dean of Harvard Business

School to Harvard President A. Lawrence


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Lowell, 1925

Harvard Fatigue Laboratory, 1946

At Harvard BusinessSchool, Dean Donham

began to shift the focusfrom scientificmanagement andapplied economics to

human relations, agrowing course of study.Mayos 1935 researchcourse HumanProblems of

Administrationincluded readings anddiscussions on recent

developments inphysiological andpsychopathologicalstudies, the FrenchSociological School,anthropological studies,


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and the theories ofItalian economist

Vilfredo Pareto. Mayoalso formed a close

partnership andfriendship with L. J.Henderson, physiologistand biochemist.Henderson ran theHarvard FatigueLaboratory, located inthe basement of the

Business SchoolsMorgan Hall, whereresearchers studiedhuman reactions toenvironment, includingthe effects of fatigue onproductivity.

Together, Donham,

Mayo, and Hendersonhad a lasting influenceon the direction ofHarvard BusinessSchools curriculum andresearch, whichembraced applied,empirical-based studiesand a multi-disciplinary

approach incorporatingbiology, physics,biochemistry,psychology, sociology,and anthropology. InMayos time . . . the idea


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of considering humanrelations in factoriesand offices wasastonishing, Abraham

Zaleznik, Professor ofLeadership, Emeritus,at Harvard BusinessSchool, notes.2 In aletter to Donham in1939, Mayo expressedhis gratitude forDonhams steady

support throughdifficult years and thepart it played in thedevelopment of this

work.3 Humanrelations was laterintegrated into otherprograms at Harvardand further developed

by Business Schoolprofessors such asGeorge Lombard, aleader in the field oforganizational behavior.

2

Abraham Zaleznik in Richard C.S. Trahair, The

Humanist Temper: The Life and Work of Elton

Mayo. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1984, p.

1.

3

Letter from Elton Mayo to Wallace B. Donham,

November 8, 1939. Wallace B. Donham Office
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Files, Baker Library, Harvard Business

School.

The Women in the RelayAssembly Test RoomI had no idea there would be so

much happening and so many people

watching us.

Theresa Layman Zajac, Relay Assembly TestRoom Operator, 1976

Women in the

Relay Assembly Test Room, ca. 1930
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Com

parison of

Output with

Hours of Sleep,

ca. 1930GeorgePennock welcomedMayos arrival at theHawthorne Works in1928. We have

becomeskeptical ofbeing able to proveanything in connection

with the behavior ofhuman beings undervarious conditions, hewrote.4 OtherHawthorne experimentstaking place at the timeincluded the effect of

wage incentives in themica splitting

department. In thestudy of fourteen menin the bank wiring testroom, where conditions

were unaltered, nochange in productivity
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occurredattributed inpart to an implicitunderstanding amongthe workers not to

exceed what theyconsidered a fair quota.

Dai

ly History

Record, October

16 and 17,

1929The studies

monitoring the output

of relay assemblyworkers, which began in1927, continued until1932, becoming thelongest runningHawthorneexperiments. HomerHibarger and later

Donald Chipman,Western Electricsupervisors, reviewedproduction performancetapes and the results ofroutine physical exams


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and maintained a logsheet of work, dailyevents, and supervisorsobservations. The six

operators studied in aseparate test room weresingle women in theirteens and earlytwenties. They camefrom Polish, Norwegian,and Bohemian families,

whom they helped

support.

T

heresa Layman Zajacs Paycheck, August 13,

1927

The women noted thatthe intimateatmosphere of the testroom gave them a senseof freedom notexperienced on thefactory floor. They feltmore at ease to talk andover time developedstrong friendships.Weve been the best


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friends since the day wewere in the test room,one of the operatorsremembered. We were

a congenialbunch.5 Through theyears, productivity inthe relay assembly testroom rose significantly.Mayo reasoned that thesix individuals became ateam and the team gave

itself wholeheartedlyand spontaneously toco-operation in anexperiment.6 These

views contributed toMayo andRoethlisbergersconclusion that mentalattitudes, proper

supervision, andinformal socialrelationshipsexperienced in a group

were key to productivityand job satisfaction.

4

George Pennock to Dugald Jackson, October

22, 1930, quoted in Richard

Gillespie, Manufacturing Knowledge: A History

of the Hawthorne Experiments. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 76.

5
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Relay assembly room test operator in Jeffrey A.

Sonnenfeld, "Shedding Light on the Hawthorne

Studies," Journal of Occupational Behavior, Vol.

6, 1985, p. 124.

6

Elton Mayo, Social Problems of an Industrial

Civilization. Boston: Division of Research,

Graduate School of Business Administration,

Harvard University, 1945, p. 64.

The Interview ProcessI think interviewing is a good

idea. It helps some people get a

lot of things off their chest.

Western Electric employee, in Comments and

Reactions on Interviewing Program, ca. 1930

Fac

tory Cabling

Department, ca.

1925Assisting Mayo

was his researchassistant, FritzRoethlisberger.Unassuming, bookish,and disciplined,Roethlisberger hadstudied philosophy at
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Harvard. He worked asa psychologicalcounselor for Harvardstudents and became

known as an expertlistener. Roethlisberger,

who found himselfspellbound by Mayoscreative imaginationand clinical insights,

would himself becomeone of Harvard Business

Schools beloved andhighly sought afterprofessors.7

Lon

g Stroke LeadSheathing Press,

ca. 1925Under Mayo

and Roethlisbergersdirection, theHawthorne experiments

began to incorporateextensive interviewing.

The researchers hopedto glean details (such ashome life orrelationship with aspouse or parent) thatmight play a role in


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employees attitudestowards work andinteractions withsupervisors. From 1928

to 1930 Mayo andRoethlisberger oversawthe process ofconducting more than21,000 interviews and

worked closely trainingresearchers ininterviewing practices.

Mag

netic Wire

Insulating

Department, ca.

1925Mayo and

Roethlisbergersmethodology shifted

when they discoveredthat, rather thananswering directedquestions, employeesexpressed themselves

more candidly ifencouraged to speakopenly in what wasknown as nondirectedinterviewing. It becameclear that if a channel


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for free expression wereto be provided, theinterview must be alistening rather than a

questioning process, aresearch study reportnoted. The interview isnow defined as aconversation in whichthe employee isencouraged to expresshimself freely upon any

topic of his ownchoosing.8

Cord Finishing

Department, ca. 1925

Interviews, whichaveraged around 30minutes, grew to 90minutes or even twohours in length in aprocess meant toprovide an emotional


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release. The resultingrecords, hundreds andhundreds of pages in

which employees

disclose personal detailsof their day to day lives,offer an astonishinglyintimate portrait of the

American industrialworker in the yearsleading to and followingthe Depression. In a

pre-computer age,thousands of commentswere sorted intoemployees attitudesabout general workingconditions, specific jobs,or supervisors andamong these categoriesinto favorable and

unfavorable commentsused to supportinterpretations of thedata. Both workers andsupervisors comments

would aid in thedevelopment ofpersonnel policies and

supervisory training,including thesubsequentimplementation of aroutine counselingprogram for employees.


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In his autobiographyThe ElusivePhenomena,Roethlisberger wrote of

grappling withobjective, hard data

versus subjective, softdata. I felt verystrongly, he noted,"that in the gooey softdata there existeduniformities about

human behavior thathad to be coaxed outbythe method ofclinical observation andinterviewing which I

was advocating for theadministrator touse.9 Roethlisbergerdiscovered that what

employees found mostdeeply rewarding wereclose associations withone another, informalrelationships ofinterconnectedness, ashe called them.Whenever and where it

was possible, he wrote,[employees] generatedthem like crazy. Inmany cases they foundthem so satisfying thatthey often did all sorts
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of nonlogical thingsinorder to belong.10 InMayos broad view, theindustrial revolution

had shattered strongties to the workplaceand communityexperienced by workersin the skilled trades ofthe 19th century. Thesocial cohesion holdingdemocracy together, he

wrote, was predicatedon these collectiverelationships, andemployees belief in asense of commonpurpose and value oftheir work.

Spreading the WordThis is the most important book on

the subject which has appeared in

recent years.It should be read by

every industrial and social

administrator, by industrial andsocial workers of every grade, and

by every politician.


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Review of Elton Mayos The Human Problems of

Industrial Civilization, in the journal The

Human Factor, 1934

The Depression and

massive layoff ofemployees at WesternElectric helped bringthe Hawthorneexperiments to agrinding halt in theearly 1930s. But thestudies took on a new

life in public lecturesgiven by Mayo, accountsof the experiments inheadlines from New

York to Texas,andFortune magazines1946 feature articlepraising Mayos studies.In keeping with its

research mission,Harvard BusinessSchool publishednumerous monographsand articles on thestudies, and reviewsappeared inprofessional journals.

Classic texts on theexperimentsincluded The IndustrialWorker, by HarvardBusiness Schoolprofessor Thomas North


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Whitehead in 1938, andthe 600-page, best-sellingtomeManagement and

the Worker, byRoethlisberger andHawthorne supervisors

William Dickson andHarold Wright in 1939.In 1933, Mayopublished The Human

Problems of an

Industrial Civilization.Modern society, hewrote, had destroyedthe belief of theindividual in his socialfunction and solidarity

with the group.11 Itwould be up to anadministrative elite to

develop methods forimproving workermorale and ultimatelysecuring nationalstability at a time ofeconomic and socialunrest.

11

Elton Mayo, The Human Problems of an

Industrial Civilization. New York: MacMillan,

1933, p. 159.
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The Hawthorne EffectWhat Mayo urged in broad outline

has become part of the orthodoxy of

modern management.

Abraham Zaleznik, Professor of Leadership,

Emeritus, Harvard Business School, 1984

Completion

of Counseling in an Organization, December 6,

1966

In 1966, Roethlisbergerand William DicksonpublishedCounseling inan Organization, which

revisited lessons gainedfrom the experiments.Roethlisbergerdescribed theHawthorne effect asthe phenomenon in


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which subjects inbehavioral studieschange theirperformance in

response to beingobserved. Many criticshave reexamined thestudies frommethodological andideological perspectives;others find theoverarching questions

and theories of the timehave new relevance inlight of the currentfocus on collaborativemanagement. Theexperiments remain atelling case study ofresearchers andsubsequent scholars

who interpret the datathrough the lens of theirown times andparticular biases.12


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Documents

The Human Relations Movement