Contribution of Behaviorists to Management Thought!
The behaviourists in their approach to management studies (Hawthorne studies) contributed substantially to management thought. The Hawthorne studies, as they are called, have been regarded as “a milestone and a turning point” in the history of man at work and in the path of research in industrial psychology and industrial sociology. These studies questioned and challenged some of the basic postulates of the classical approach and focused attention on workers and their morale.
In the words of Urwick and Brech:
“The investigations were no less than a text book on the practice of management in regard to the essential human process that is inherent in the responsibility of every manager……. It is the guidance, the inspiration, the leadership of men and women that constitute the real core of the responsibilities of management.”
Dr. Brown said that no other industrial psychologist had ever shown anything else and it was, therefore, hard to understand why Mayo had been criticised for being biased in favour of management.
The main contributions are:
1. Human Relation Approach:
Growth and development of human relations approach in personnel administration. The studies revealed the importance of human and social factors in industrial relationships.
2. Non-Economic Awards:
Hawthorne experiments revealed that non-economic incentives are sometimes more important in deterring the attitude of workers towards their work and management.
3. Personal Counselling:
The behaviourist researches “stressed the values in the talking out process in alleviating personal stress and pre-occupation and in bringing about cooperative relation within work groups.”
4. Informal Group:
A cognizable contribution of the behaviourists was to show that the factory was a social system and that informal groupings in the work situation vitally affected human behaviour. From the structural point of view an organization should have such an informal organisation that can become useful to the leadership and can be an effective channel of communication and a means of direction.
5. Teaching and Practice of Industrial Management:
Hawthorne experiments “have influenced the studies on the general teaching and practice of industrial management in major colleges and universities during the past quarter of a century”. As the net result of behavioural researches we can conclude that it paved the way “to make supervisors and higher executives, both in the plant and in the office, think about what constitutes constructive leadership on the job, about effective techniques of communication and teaching, overcoming resistance to change, instilling pride in work and achieving identification with company objectives.”
The overall impact, according to Massie, was “to challenge the non-motivational concept of the scientific management school.” The worker is a complex human being and not an extension of his machine. The studies demonstrated the human resistance characteristics of a “scientifically managed” plant. “Major productivity gains might be achieved through an improved understanding of the human factor in organization.”