The Behavioral Approach
The behavioral approach to management emphasizes increasing production through an understanding of people. According to proponents of this approach, if managers understand their people and adapt their organizations to those people, organizational success will usually follow.
The Hawthorne Studies
The behavioral approach is usually described as beginning with a series of studies conducted between 1924 and 1932 that investigated the behavior and attitudes of the workers at the Hawthorne (Chicago) Works of the Western Electric Company.26 Accounts of the Hawthorne Studies are usually divided into two phases: the relay assembly test room experiments and the bank wiring observation room experiment. The following sections discuss both of these phases.
The Relay Assembly Test Room Experiments
The relay assembly test room experiments originally had a scientific management orientation. The experimenters believed that if they studied productivity long enough and under a large enough variety of working conditions (including variations in weather conditions, temperature, rest periods, work hours, and humidity), they would discover the working conditions that maximized production. The initial purpose of the relay assembly test room experiments was to determine the relationship between intensity of lighting and worker efficiency, as measured by worker output. Two groups of female employees were used as subjects. The light intensity for one group was varied, whereas the light intensity for the other group was held constant.
The results of the experiments surprised the researchers: No matter what conditions employees were exposed to, their production increased. Because the researchers found no consistent relationship between productivity and lighting intensity, they undertook an extensive interviewing campaign to determine why the subjects’ production increased under all lighting conditions. The following are the main reasons, as formulated from the interviews:
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The subjects found working in the test room enjoyable.
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The new supervisory relationship during the experiment allowed the subjects to work freely, without fear.
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The subjects realized that they were taking part in an important and interesting study.
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The subjects seemed to become friendly as a group.
The experimenters concluded that human factors within organizations could significantly influence production. More research was needed, however, to evaluate the potential impact of this human component in organizations.
The Bank Wiring Observation Room Experiment
The purpose of the bank wiring observation room experiment was to analyze social relationships in a work group. Specifically, the study focused on the effect of group piecework incentives on a group of men who assembled terminal banks for use in telephone exchanges. The group piecework incentive system dictated that the harder the group worked as a whole, the more pay each member of the group would receive.
The experimenters believed that the study would show that the members of the work group would pressure one another to work harder so that each group member would receive more pay. To their surprise, the experimenters found the opposite: The work group pressured the faster workers to slow down their work rates. Instead of pressuring the men whose work rates would have decreased individual salaries, the group pressured the men whose work rates would have increased individual salaries. Evidently, the men were more interested in preserving work group solidarity than in making more money. The researchers concluded that social groups in organizations could effectively exert enough pressure to influence individuals to disregard monetary incentives.27
Recognizing the Human Variable
Taken together, the series of studies conducted at the Hawthorne plant gave management thinkers a new direction for research. Obviously, after the studies showed that the human variable could either increase or decrease production dramatically, the human variable in the organization needed much more analysis. Managers began to realize that they needed to understand this influence so that they could maximize its positive effects and minimize its negative effects. This attempt to understand people is still a major force in today’s organizational research.28 The Hawthorne study results helped managers see that understanding what motivates employees is a crucial part of being a manager.30 More current behavioral findings and their implications for management are discussed in greater detail in Chapters 12 through 16.
The Human Relations Movement
The Hawthorne Studies sparked the human relations movement, a people-oriented approach to management in which the interaction of people in organizations is studied to judge its impact on organizational success. The ultimate objective of this approach is to enhance organizational success by encouraging appropriate relationships among people. To put it simply, when management stimulates high productivity and worker commitment to the organization and its goals, human relations are said to be effective; when management supports low productivity and uncommitted workers, human relations are said to be ineffective. Human relations skill is defined as the ability to work with people in a way that enhances organizational success.
The human relations movement has made some important contributions to the study and practice of management. Advocates of this approach to management have continually stressed the need to use compassionate methods when managing people. Abraham Maslow, perhaps the best-known contributor to the human relations movement, believed that managers must understand the physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs of organization members. Douglas McGregor, another important contributor to the movement, emphasized a management philosophy built on the views that people can be self-directed, accept responsibility, and consider work to be as natural as play.31 The ideas of both Maslow and McGregor are discussed thoroughly in Chapter 17. As a result of the tireless efforts of theorists such as Maslow and McGregor, modern managers better understand the human component in organizations and how to appropriately work with it to enhance organizational success.
Consistent with the human relations movement, SAS is dedicated to building a human-oriented work environment. Leaders at SAS, the world’s largest privately held software company, believe that employees represent the company’s most significant asset. SAS works to maintain this asset by providing generous benefits like subsidized cafeterias and daycare, a free health clinic for employees and their families, and a recreation and fitness center that boasts a pool, a sauna, and massage facilities. By placing trust in its employees, SAS generates employee loyalty, productivity, and commitment. For 13 consecutive years, the company has been named to Fortune magazine’s list of “100 Best Companies to Work For.”32
MyManagementLab: Try It, Strategic Management
If your instructor has assigned this activity, go to mymanagementlab.com to try a simulation exercise about a dairy business.