The Theory Of Human Relations And Its Application To Organizations
The world of work has changed a lot throughout history. From the typical crafts of the Middle Ages to the large and small companies in which we work today, through work in factories after the Industrial Revolution, the changes both in terms of the vision of work and in what involves the worker or the way it should be treated have been happening.
Within this area, numerous studies have been carried out from various disciplines such as psychology, some of them leading to changes in the vision of society and employers of the worker and the importance of their well-being in their productivity.
Although initially the worker was seen as a “lazy person” who had to be motivated mainly with salary, little by little it was observed that there were a large number of factors that influence the worker, his productivity and his general well-being. This progressive change would be greatly helped by the Hawthorne and the development of the theory of human relations which we are going to talk about throughout this article.
Although the fact that the human and relational factor is important in the workplace is today considered common and logical, the truth is that at the time this notion was introduced it represented a revolution. And it is that the theory of human relations, developed by Elton Mayo began to develop around the 1930s.
At that time, the general conception of organizations and work in them was a classic vision, focused on production and that saw the worker as a lazy and idle entity that needed to be spurred by wages to work, or that It was understood as a machine that had to be guided from leadership positions (the only ones on whom organizing and dominating the company depended).
It would not be until the emergence of psychology and its application to the workplace and industry that the factors that affect the worker would not begin to be analyzed from a humanistic and psychological perspective. Thanks to that now an increasing need to both humanize and democratize production (dissatisfaction, abuses and worker revolts were frequent), a concept closer to the industrial worker would be developed.
The theory of human relations
The theory of human relations is a theory of organizational psychology, which proposes that the most important part of an organization is the human and interactive part and that the worker’s behavior is more related to membership in a social group. their well-being with the environment and the social norms existing within said group than with the type of task performed, how it is structured or with the receipt of a specific salary (which was believed to be the only motivator for the worker).
Basically, it establishes the importance of the social environment in which the worker develops and the psychological impact of said medium when explaining behavior, performance and work productivity.
In this theory, which appears as a reaction to the excessive control over the task that existed during the time, the focus of interest is no longer on the task itself and how the organization is structured to focus on the worker and the network of social relationships and friendship that forms within the organization.
Likewise, the worker stops seeing himself as an independent element whose performance only depends on his will and begins to see that it depends largely on his relationship with the group and how it is organized.
What’s more, thanks to the studies carried out, we would begin to take into account the power of the network and links that are formed informally between workers, the importance of the perception of social support and the impact of these processes when it comes to improving performance or reduce it to conform to the norm of the group to which one belongs It would also allow the development of new systems and strategies aimed at improving and optimizing the development of the members of the organization, as well as aspects such as the assessment of communications and feedback to employees.
The Hawthorne experiments
The theory of human relations and subsequent developments are derived from the aforementioned aspects, but probably one of the most relevant milestones that led to its birth were the Hawthorne experiments, carried out at the Hawthorne factory by Elton Mayo and other collaborators. .
Initially these experiments began in 1925 with the initial intention was look for a relationship between lighting and employee productivity , May would begin to evaluate the working conditions (relatively good for the time) and the performance of the workers in different lighting conditions. In this aspect they did not find great variability, but they were able to locate other variables of great importance: the psychosocial ones.
After that, from 1928 to 1940, these humanistic and psychosocial factors would begin to be analyzed. In the first phase, the working conditions and the effect of the employees’ feelings and emotions towards the work, the environment and even with respect to their role in it would be analyzed. From this it was extracted that Personal consideration played a great role in the performance and satisfaction of workers
It was in the second phase in which one of the great divergences with the most classic theories was found: the behavior of the workers was more linked to the social and organizational aspects than to their own individual characteristics. This was achieved through a series of interviews in which the researchers sought to get the workers to express their assessment of their work.
In a third phase, the work groups and the interaction between workers were analyzed, with experiments in which a payment system was used in which a high salary was only maintained if there was an increase in total production, to which the workers responded by standardizing their productivity to increase it little by little, initially reducing their level to the most efficient ones so that everyone could increase total performance: They sought to be consistent in their performance so that all members of the group could have some stability.
There was a sanction for those who did not respect the group norm (those who did not comply with the informal norm were pressured) as a search for conformity with the majority
The fourth and final phase focused on studying the interaction between the formal organization of the company and the informal organization of the employees, seeking an interaction in which workers could express their problems and conflicts. The conclusions of these experiments would lead to the generation of interest in the employee and their relationships, which would gradually expand.
