summary-History Of Management Thought-The Human Factor

Chapter9. The Human Factor: Preparing the Way
DINI TURIPANAM ALAMANDA

PERSONEL MANAGEMENT: A DUAL HERITAGE
1. The notion of personnel work as “welfare” or industrial betterment
2. Scientific management

Personnel as Welfare Work

Several companies hired a welfare secretary, who happened to have many duties, to advise management. In some cases, their duties seem to be paternalistic
There were many secretaries who were female, perhaps because of their experience in vocational guidance or social work, or perhaps because some of their duties resembled a role stereotype of what a woman did – for example: administering dining facilities, handling illnesses, etc
The social secretary listened to and handled grievances, ran the sick room of the workers, administered the dining facilities, prepared nutritious menus, and looked after the moral behavior of unmarried female factory employees

Scientific Management and Personnel

Scientific management emphasized personnel selection, placement, wage plans and other issues involving employee welfare
Welfare work eventually was replace with “Employment Management” after 1910 as personnel practices were standardized and improved
Scientific management would find its goals and methods reshape by the behavioral and social sciences. Together, welfarism and scientific management prepared the way for modern personnel management

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE INDIVIDUAL
Toward Scientific Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt, who pioneered scientific psychology and opened the first laboratory in Leipzig in 1879, founded experimental psychology, leading to applied and industrial psychology.
There are many disparities and disagreement about instincts theory

The Birth of Industrial Psychology

Hugo Munsterberg (1863-1916) applied scientific psychology to industrial problems. His Psychology and Industrial Efficiency contained three broad parts: “Best possible worker”, “Best possible work”, “Best possible effect”
In this era, people became an organization’s most vital asset ,not out of sentimentally or moral uplift, but based on the view that concern for employee welfare would increase worker efficiency

Foundations of the Social Person: Theory, Research, Practice
The Antecedents of Industrial Sociology
Whiting Williams (1878-1975), felt the only way to discover the human problems of industry would be to become a participant-observer because “men’s actions spring from their feeling”
William’s view that he established earnings as a means of social comparison, that is, the pay a worker received was considered not in absolute terms, but relative to what others received
William’s works were rarely reviewed in the scholarly sociology journals of that period

Sociological Theory and Human Relations

Mechanical societies were dominated by a collective consciousness
Organic societies were characterized by interdependence and the division of labor leading to anomie (state of confusion, insecurity, and “normlessness”
Durkheim’s thinking influenced the human relationists’ view of the need for social solidarity,
Pareto, was the originator of the notion of the “social system”
C. H. Cooley – “Looking Glass Self” is a very interesting way of looking at the formation of self-efficacy, personality development, and other similar ideas,
Gestalt psychology – the whole system is greater than the sum of its parts.

Employee Participation in Decision Making
The Trade Union Movement and Industrial Relations

John R. Commons (1862-1945), the “Father of Industrial Relations.”
probably the first to use the term “Human Resources,”
wrote of the need for workers to have a voice in the workplace,
was not anti-scientific management because it worked in some firms, but felt workers needed a say-so in the workplace
American Federation of Labor formed under the leadership of Samuel Gompers in 1886
The goal was to achieve gains for organized labor through bargaining power, not productivity,
Gompers said “more, more, and then more” was what labor wanted.
After Taylor’s death a number of people were instrumental in reformulating the official viewpoint of scientific management toward labor union
Tead and Valentine pushed for worker and union participation in management,
Cooke proposed to democratize management

The Era of Union-Management Cooperation

During World War I, President Wilson’s National War Labor Board also furthered many goals of organized labor: for example, it prohibited employers from engaging in antiunion activities, required time-and-one-half pay for work over eight hours per day, established the principle of shop committees elected by employees to confer with management regarding grievances, etc.
There were organized labor of which the response was to cooperate with management with the proviso that the workers could elect representatives and bargain collectively
Using management research departments within the union, labor leadership emphasized that the worker actually needed the management engineer
Employee Representation Plan

Employee representation plans did not involve unions but the workers elected representatives and participated through shop councils and committees.
Unions did not like these plans, but studies of these plans indicated they were progressive and improved labor-management relations
The Russell Sage Foundation sponsored numerous studies of employee representation plans, which typically reported lower worker turnover, a mutual prosperity of employee and employer, better channels for handling grievances, and a voice for workers