Evolution of Managementneo Classical period

Following the classical period, came the Neo Classical period, a modified improved and extended version of the management theories. Rather than focusing on the job content and management of the physical resources, Neo – classical period highlighted the influence of individual and group relationships in the work place. Management theories introduced during this period study how an organization is affected by the psychological and sociological factors of its employees and their group behaviour.

HAWTHORNE EXPERIMENT

Conducted by George Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger of the Harvard Business School, the Hawthorne experiment was based on the Hawthorne Plant of Western Electrical Company at Chicago. Through this experiment Elton Mayo investigated the informal groupings, informal relationships, patterns of informal leaderships and etc.

This experiment which was conducted from 1927 to 1932 helped Elton Mayo to find out that the productivity of the employees does not solely depend on the physical conditions of work or their salary. A huge part of the productivity of the employees depends on the satisfaction of the employees in their work place. According to Mayo, when determining the productivity efficiency of a company, logical factors contribute much less when compared with the emotional factors. Concluding the experiment, mayo suggested, in order to increase the quality and production of a company, the management should focus on satisfying the employee’s subjective requirement of social satisfaction within the company.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE HAWTHORNE EXPERIMENT

As Elton Mayo and his team pointed out, these behavioral science methods have many areas of application in the area of management.

With the findings of the experiment, Mayo suggested that it will give much effective results if the management can motivate their employees psychologically and socially, as economic incentives are not the only methods to motivate people. Productivity is linked with employee satisfaction in any business or in any organization. Therefore management must take greater interest in employee satisfaction.

This theory also implies that man is far more important than inanimate machines hence to get a higher output it is important to set higher employee morale.

BEHAVIORAL THEORY

Behavioral theory recognizes the employees for their individual differences. This theory considers each individual as a unique personality with feelings, emotions, perception and attitude. With every employee being unique they create their own job situation within an organization. For this reason each individual has a unique meaning for his job with his own working conditions.

This theory suggests that the employee’s inner world is more important than the external reality in the determination of productivity. Thus, according to the behavioral theory, human relations at work act as a deciding factor of the rise or the fall in productivity.

Furthermore, employees within a company should be treated as a social being rather than an isolated individual. Therefore according to this neo- classical theory, it suggests to focus on group psychology and group behavior for motivation and productivity. Behavioral theory also suggests allowing employees to participate in decision making. New studies based on this field implies that getting suggestions from employees when planning job content and job operations could help to increase the productivity and the quality of the company outputs.