Human Relations Approach Essay

870 Words4 Pages
Characteristics of the Human Relations Approach The Hawthorne experiments, led by Elton Mayo, were conducted at the Western Electric Company's plant in Chicago between 1924 and 1933 and were key to the development of the Human Relations approach. Key Assumptions of the Human Relations Approach The Hawthorne experiments and unionism led to the following key assumptions which underpin the Human Relations approach: Employees are motivated by social needs. Employees respond more to social forces (e.g. peer pressure) than to management's rules and financial incentives. Employee participation in decision making is necessary to improve efficiency. Employees will respond better to managers who are able to fulfill their needs.…show more content…
• The approach did not recognize that a variety of factors, other than good human relations, were necessary to sustain a high level of motivation Impact of Human Relations Approach on Human Resource Management The Human Relations approach ensured that management and personnel staff no longer viewed employees simply as 'factors of production', and emphasized the need to give attention to the social side of people management. The Personnel department would respond to requests from other departments (e.g. Finance, Manufacturing) for specialized advice and support on issues pertaining to recruitment, remuneration, training and personnel administration. With the emergence of the Human Resource approach, what was previously known as "Personnel Administration/Management" was renamed "Human Resource Management" (Swanepoel, 2004). The principles which underlie the "Human Resource" approach include the following: • Employees are seen to be assets and therefore need to be managed and developed to ensure enhanced productivity and contribution to the
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