A very brief history of human relations management
Human Relations Management began with Mary Parker Follet, a social worker with 25 years of experience working with schools and non-profit organizations. She is best known for developing ideas of constructive conflict (also called cognitive conflict). She believed conflict could be beneficial. She believed the best way to deal with conflict was not domination or compromise, but rather integration. Elton Mayo, best known for the Hawthorne Studies, investigated the effects of lighting levels and incentives on employee productivity.
Chester Barnard, an experienced top executive, became very influential (and best known) for his ideas about cooperation and the acceptance of authority. He proposed a comprehensive theory of cooperation in formal organizations and defined an organization as “a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons. ” The human relations school of management is also known as motivational theory. Not everyone is on board with all its concepts; however, it would be hard to argue the fact hat it has changed management practice overall (and over a period of years) for the better.
Human Relations Management Theory considers employees differently than the more overbearing management theories strong in the past. Largely based on theories of Douglas McGregor, HR Management Theory makes the assumption that people want to work. The assumptions are also made that people are responsible, self-motivated, and wanting to succeed; and, further, that they nderstand their own position in the company hierarchy.
McGregor called this Theory Y. Theory Y is the total opposite of what McGregor called Theory X. Theory X takes the view that employees are lazy, not at all motivated, seek only their own security from work, and that they require supervision and discipline. In a nutshell, Human Relations Theory clearly views workers as much more than a cog in the company wheel. It makes the assertion that businesses prosper as they help their employees prosper.
