Topic 1: Introduction

Concepts and History

Objectives
Upon successful completion of this lesson, the human relations student will
be able to:
1. Describe the history of the human relations movement;
2. Explain the significance of Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne Study;
3. Explain the two components of all relationships, and give examples;
4. Describe the two types of relationships, and give examples;
5. Explain Argyris’ summary of human development.

Key Words and Concepts:

 Elton Mayo
 Hawthorne Studies
 Frederick Taylor
 Chris Argyris: Adult vs. Child
 Supportive
 Autocratic
 Structure
 Consideration
 Self-Awareness
 Complexity of human nature

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 History of Human Relations
Before the 20th Century, most business owners and managers regarded
workers (and work animals, such as horses) as nothing more than a “factor
of production”, to be used as much as possible during a day of work. With
industrialization, however, came both the opportunity for specialization of
work skills on the production line, and massing together of workers in barn-
like enclosed spaces. The stage was set for the scientific study of how best
to organize and manage these masses of people doing different tasks.

TAYLOR
Frederick Taylor (called the “father of scientific management”) was
concerned with how to make people more efficient in this new world of
mass production and factories. His goal was to reduce waste (of time and
effort), and thus to allow more profits. By generating more profits through
more scientific and efficient approaches, Taylor hoped to increase the
incomes and standards of living of workers, and to reduce the long hours of
toil.

Of course, while scientific management (“Taylorism”) helped to streamline

production processes by giving workers specialized tasks that they could
become expert at, it also made jobs boring and repetitious. It also assumed
that job tasks were simple, and required little adaptability, creativity, or
problem-solving. Taylor also failed to recognize that workers are motivated
by more than just money: workers are also motivated by pride, a need for
esteem (feeling valued and important), a need for control over their own
destiny, and a drive to have hope that the future will be better than today,
among other things. Finally, Taylor failed to take into account the social
needs of workers. (Taylorism tended to separate workers, and not allow for
team work.)

MAYO and the Hawthorne Studies

Elton Mayo of Harvard conducted an experiment at the Western Electric

Company in 1927. He changed the working conditions of women who made
the electric windings for coils used in telegraph and telephone equipment.
He changed 24 different work conditions to see which conditions produced
the greatest output.

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In his experiments, he sometimes changed work conditions “for the better”
(better ventilation or better lighting), and sometimes he changed conditions
for the worse (light reduced so much that it was only equivalent to
moonlight!) To Mayo’s amazement, no matter what change he introduced,
production increased.

Mayo had told these women, when he had chosen them, that their foreman
had singled them out as open to change, and that they could be trusted to be
honest experimental subjects. The foreman had recognized these women as
intelligent, easy to deal with, and trustworthy. (They would respond to
Mayo’s changes without trying to second-guess him.) The Hawthorne
Effect, as it came to be called, refers to any improvement in employee
performance that is the result of being paid attention to, and of receiving
feedback that generates self-worth. The Western Electric employees had
received large amounts of attention from a Harvard researcher! They were
determined to show him that they deserved the attention. By accident, Mayo
had discovered that when you treat workers as important, valuable, and
special, they respond with extra pride and effort.

Today
Taylor began the research work into labor conditions. He attempted to make
work more efficient, but he failed to recognize the social and human
components of work. Since Taylor and Mayo began the scientific study of
people at work, other researchers have continued to expand the field. People
such as Chris Argyris, Frederick Herzberg, and many others have added to
our knowledge of people at work.

In summary, what we know now is that people are complex, and they bring
that complexity to the work place. To deal with people, we each need to be
skilled at dealing with complexity. The core ideas in dealing with human
complexity are:

-Communication: failures and skills

-Self-Awareness: strengths, and weaknesses (to eliminate)
-Motivation: apply what really works, not what the myths say
-Supportive Environments: establishing a climate of honesty and trust
-Self-Disclosure: assertive clarity, without attacking others
-Conflict Management: minimizing defensive reactions; negotiating

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Related to these summary ideas are specific notions such as:

-Empathy
-Patience
-Rational, adult behavior
-Caring deeply about others, not just yourself
-Emotional intelligence and maturity (resisting revenge and
judgmentalism)

Do you have to be a saint to have good human relations? No, but it sure
would help! Seriously, though, being mature and patient and calm in the
face of the verbal attacks and violence we face daily is a tough task. The
payoff, if you can succeed at least once in a while, is pride in your own
ability to not be controlled by others’ unhappiness.

Note: an excellent source of further background reading on the origins of

human relations thinking can be found at a comprehensive Web site
theworkingmanager.com. Here, Robin Stuart-Kotze traces the work of Mayo
and Taylor, and others.

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 Components of Relationships
After Mayo firmly established the importance of relationship issues in the
workplace, Rensis Likert and other social psychologists then began to
identify the component parts of relationships. What we now know is that
every relationship has two foundation components, known as Structure and
Consideration. Further, thanks to Chris Argyris and others, we know that
Consideration is further broken into two possible types: Supportive or
Autocratic.

Every relationship has Structure. The Structure involves the tasks that a
person must perform in order for the other person to be satisfied, and want
to continue the relationship. For example, at work, an electrician is faced
with Structure when it comes to maintaining an employee-employer
relationship with his/her boss. Some of those structural tasks include
showing up for work at the time expected, maintaining a valid electrician’s
license, reading wiring diagrams, and correctly wiring 220 volt main
entrance panels.

In an intimate romantic relationship, the Structure tasks are perhaps more

open to negotiation than would be true for the more inflexible nature of the
electrician’s (or other) employee-employer relationship. For example, in a
romantic relationship, who will put out the trash, or walk the dog, or pay the
bills? Those tasks must be done, done consistently, and done well in order
for each person to be happy and stress-free. In the more intimate aspects of
such a relationship, is one task the job of maintaining monogamy?
Ordinarily, it would be part of the Structure of such a relationship.

In a sibling relationship, again, the Structure is a bit more open to

negotiation than in the working world. Perhaps the Structure involves
sending cards for birthdays and Christmas. Perhaps the Structure (in grade
school) involves protecting and standing up for a sibling in the face of
bullies or put-downs. Perhaps it involves doing the dishes, while a sibling
helps with the laundry.

Structure in a relationship involves a very limited range of possibilities and

options. At work, there is a limited range of acceptable behavior involving
timely accomplishments of duties. How many times can you be late for
work, or late on getting a project done, and still keep your job?

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In intimate relationships, the range of possibilities may be a bit more open to
negotiation (“Sis, I’ll do dishes if you want to do the laundry”), but still has
a limited range. (Sis is unlikely to do the dishes, the laundry, mow the lawn,
etc., while you laze about on the computer every day.)

On the other hand, Consideration (which refers to how people treat each
other as the task components are being worked on) has a wide range of
possibilities. This wide range of behaviors is totally under the control of the
individual. Charlie Brown can choose and control how he treats Lucy. He
can be sarcastic, honest, deceptive, helpful, self-centered, etc. He does not
have to negotiate this with Lucy. Charlie simply makes up his mind and
then treats Lucy however he chooses. (Of course, Lucy may have her own
ideas about what is “fair” treatment, so choose carefully, Charlie!)

Consideration, while complex and wide in range, can be simplified into

two core components: Supportive treatment and Autocratic treatment.
On subsequent pages, you’ll read about Argyris’ detailed analysis of these
two components. In general, for healthy relationships, Supportive treatment
will serve as the best choice.

Autocratic behavior (using power to try to control other people) is a poor

choice, except for emergency situations. For example, if I see you’re about
to leave a party we are attending, and I know you are legally intoxicated, I
will autocratically refuse to let you drive. I will take your keys by force if
necessary. There is no time to engage in supportive dialogue and mutual
agreement. Unless I get the keys from you NOW before you walk out the
door, I may be contributing to your injury or death, or the injury or death of
innocent people on the highways. However, when there is plenty of time to
talk, relationships flourish when people are supportive: showing empathy, a
willingness to be patient, to sacrifice, to listen, to help, to be calm.

Note: Chris Argyris’s work can be accessed through his many writings,
especially Organisational Learning, published by Addison-Wesley in 1978.

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 The Foundations of Your Relationships:
Self - Assessment
Directions: For each statement, choose either “a” or “b”, as most applies to
you. (You must choose one choice in each situation!)

1. When someone talks behind your back, and you find out about it, you
tend to say something such as

a. “He’s such a jerk!”

b. “I get so upset when someone like James spreads rumors about
me.”

2. When you want something different than somebody else in your circle of
friends, you tend to

a. try to control the options and choices of the other person, perhaps
through making them feel guilty or afraid
b. try to find some way that both of you can get what you want

3. When someone asks you why you want something done a certain way,
you usually respond by saying

a. “Because that’s the way I want it done.”

b. “What do you think is the best way?”

4. Which of the following are you more likely to say:

a. “This movie stinks!”

b. “The dialogue in this movie is dumb.”

5. Which of the following is likely to be your reaction to being criticized:

a. “Hey, who died and made you king?”

b. “So, how would you like things to be different?”

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6. Which gives you a greater feeling of satisfaction:

a. Having the authority to tell people what to do

b. Making decisions in a team setting

7. When you have a chance to manage other people, which of the following
would you expect from those you are managing:

a. Quick compliance with your directions

b. Independent thinking, and following through on commitments

8. When you are working for someone else, which of the following makes
you most comfortable and happy:

a. knowing that the boss will always have an answer to all your
questions, and will give you clear directions
b. knowing that the boss will trust you to make independent
decisions, and to follow through on them

9. If your friend Sela is upset that her boyfriend lied to her, which are you
more likely to say:

a. “Hey, get it together. All guys lie. You just have to deal with it.”
b. “Gee, you must be so shocked that you couldn’t trust him.”

10 When you play checkers with your six year-old niece, you can win every
game. She has fun playing, but isn’t very good at it. When you play,
which do you do:

a. Win every game, because you don’t want her to learn to expect that
people will take it easy on her.
b. Let her win some, by making silly mistakes, and having a laugh
about them.

(Scoring on next page; go right ahead and score your answers.)

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Scoring:

Add up the number of times you chose “A”:__________

Add up the number of times you chose “B”:__________

Subtract “A” from “B”: B - A = __________

This is your SCORE

If your SCORE is: 10: You are Totally Supportive

8: You are Highly Supportive
6: You are Supportive
4: You are Somewhat Supportive
2: You can be Supportive
0: You are on the fence

Negative numbers: Your normal tendency is to be Autocratic.

The bigger the negative number, the
greater your preference to express
yourself through power and control.

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 Autocratic and Supportive: Definitions
While many models exist to describe the nature of relationships, we will focus on
just two models, or terms: Autocratic, or, Supportive. In human relations, the
foundation principle is to choose to act in Supportive ways, for the vast majority of
time. Autocratic behavior can be justified in the case of emergencies or extreme
time pressure. However, an autocratic choice made under time pressure must
always be discussed and reviewed by those on the receiving end of the power and
the demands. This review serves to explain the choice, and to give everyone an
opportunity to understand the situation faced by the autocratic person.

Autocratic: Behavior centered on use of power to get what the user wants. Power
may be displayed in orders, demands, threats, anger, and similar tactics.

Supportive: Behavior centered on the equality of worth of people and their beliefs.
Support can show itself through a willingness to “hear-out” others, or by offering
help, by showing a willingness to sacrifice for the benefit of others, through
display of compassion or patience, and similar tactics.

Example:
Josh finds that his neighbor Jenn has let her dog relieve himself on Josh’s lawn.

If he reacted Autocratically, Josh might angrily yell at Jenn, threatening her with,
“If I catch that rotten mutt on my property again, I’ll stomp its freaking head!”

If he reacted Supportively, Josh might patiently discuss the situation with Jenn,
saying, “I know I’ve never mentioned this before, and I should have. What I need
you to know is that Fido’s relieving himself on my lawn causes some unexpected
adventures-in-walking for me. I’d really appreciate your making sure Fido doesn’t
do his business where someone in my family might step in it. Thanks!”