The Development of Modern Human Resource Management

 The Development of Modern Human Resource Management

Human Resource originated in twentieth century because of human relations movement which began after Fredrick Taylor introduced scientific management in Industry which also got popular as Taylorism. According to Taylor (1911) manual labor turn-over time is key component in production efficiency, which spark interest among industry experts regarding labor contribution in industry (Merkle,2012).

Hawthorn Study

Due to limited labor resource during World war period many industry experts were conducting research and studies on ways to improve production efficiency. One of the famous is Hawthorne study conducted by Henry A. Landsberger. Study conducted to check if the productivity of workers increased when the lighting increased. However, during study when lighting increased productivity increased, when lighting decreased also productivity increased. However, when the study ended production level of workers decreased again when study ended. (Merkle,2012)

Other complimentary experiments conducted such as how changing work hours and break hours effect the productivity also ended up increasing the productivity level. Yet again once study concluded productivity also decreased. After considering every factor researcher concluded that productivity increasement is indeed a response of workers to the attention they are getting from management and researchers during the research period. When Landsberger presented the findings of research, he mentioned workers productivity level temporary increased during study because workers knew they were being observed while working (Trahair,1984).

After the Hawthorn study another study was conducted by Elton Mayo and Lloyd Warner in the 1930s.Focus of the study was to determine the effect of incentive payment have in the workers productivity level. Researchers selected fourteen male employees and they were paid based on their individual productivity. However unexpectedly productivity level decreased when performance incentive increased. Reason being workers suspecting sudden wage increasement is company ploy to fire some employees or to deduct their pay in the future. When research team conducted deeper analysis they found out workers have actually formed a group that implemented set of rules and strategies to make sure employees adhering to set rules. Through the rules group could control workers, informal group even managed to control the way employee interacted with researchers and management. The conclusion of the research was workers were more responsive towards informal group rather to performance incentive (Merkle,2012).

After reflecting for period, Mayo concluded:

• Job Satisfaction directly involved with the how much control employees have on their own performance. When employee was given freedom to decide working environment and set their own rules and procedures employee’s satisfaction towards the job role also increased.

• Increased interaction helps to build unified work atmosphere in an organisation.

• Job satisfaction and productivity level depend more on cooperation and sense of belong rather than on physical working conditions.

Mayo’s finding brought discussions about considering how human emotions, sentiments, problems and interactions can affect the productivity of organisation.

 References

Merkle, J.A. (2012), Management and Ideology, ISBN 0-520-037375,

Muldoon,J. The Hawthorne legacy: A reassessment of the impact of Hawthorne studies on management scholarship,1930-1958.

Trahair, R.C. The Humanist Temper:the life and work of Elton Mayo. Transaction,1984.

Links

https://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/hawthorne/rl-selected.html#SDHR 

https://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/hawthorne/