Week 4: Humans Relations

Mary Parker Follett

Mary Parker Follett was ahead of her time when she began theorizing about organizations and how they work. Follett focused on group work and thought that groups of people working together was how an organization should be run. She contributed to the human relations approach by introducing this new way of treating workers. During the Great Depression workers were treated very badly and didn’t have much control of how they were being treated. Follett wanted to change that by having workers be informed of what was going in the organization and for them to have an actual positive relationship between workers and leaders. Here is a quote from Follett that I liked:

“Instead of shutting out what is different, we should welcome it because it is different and through its difference will make a richer content of life… Every difference that is swept up into a bigger conception feeds and enriches society; every difference which is ignored feeds on society and eventually corrupts it.” (Mary Parker Follett)

Source: http://infed.org/mobi/mary-parker-follett-community-creative-experience-and-education/

Elton Mayo

Elton Mayo had some of the same views as Follett and believed relationships were what influenced workers. Mayo is best known for his research in worker productivity. His research found the Hawthorne effect which states that workers productivity went up when the management paid more attention to them and treated them better.

Source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_Mayo.htm

Chester Barnard

Chester Barnard believed cooperation between workers and leaders is how a successful organization should be run. He believed that being cooperative within an organization is how things get done and is much better than doing things alone. Barnard also thought motivation and persuasion were key in keeping workers satisfied.

Source: http://study.com/academy/lesson/chester-barnards-management-theory-lesson-quiz.html

Human Relations Approach

The human relations approach to management has many positive improvements on how to make relationships in organizations better. Although this approach makes some good points on how to improve workers experience it also has its limitations. Since this approach is based on relationships and people’s needs some people may be lying about certain things. In this approach there needs to be mutual trust between workers and management. Some may take advantage of this and not be truthful. For example, a manager may motivate an employee to work longer hours in exchange for extra pay. The employee trusts the manager will do so because believes they have an honest relationship but the employee soon finds out that the manager was lying and did not give the employee extra pay. This is a negative effect of the human relations approach because the employee relied on the management for extra pay but the manager was not truthful. Another limitation of the human relations approach is that it relies on cooperation throughout an organization to function correctly. I think this is too good to be true. It is very rare that every group of people in an organization will cooperate. I think this approach sounds good but when it is actually practiced there are major flaws. I included the visual below to show how human relations evolved into human resources

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/tobyodunowo/evolution-of-human-resources-management-11866176

While I was doing more research on human relations I came across an article in inquirer.net that I thought was interesting. I also think it gives good tips when dealing with a human relations approach to management, you can read it here.

“The Soup Nazi”

I think this clip is a great example of human relations. In the beginning George says he made a mistake and that’s why he didn’t have any soup which makes Elaine laugh. George is an example of the scared and quiet employee and Elaine is the confident one. The man serving the soup is an example of an intimidating manager. George quickly tells the man what soup he wants and moves out of the way. While Elaine is not intimidated at all and walks up to the counter taps it and asks the man questions. She also makes a negative comment to him about Al Pacino. I think the clip and the soup Nazi show how strict some organizations and managers can be. For example, the soup Nazi had a strict behavior policy of how a customer should act in line and if they didn’t act in a good enough manner they did not receive soup. This can be related to a manger at an organization who asks workers to accomplish tasks in a certain way and if they don’t they are not rewarded. I also think this clip shows that if the soup Nazi had a better human relations approach to his customer he may get more business.