The founder of behavioral science: George Elton Mayo (George Elton Mayo), United States 1880-1949, born in Adelaide, Australia. At the age of 20, he obtained a master's degree in logic and philosophy from Alfred University, Australia.
Applied to teach logic, ethics and philosophy at the University of Queensland.
Later, he went to Edinburgh, Scotland, to study psychopathology and analyze mental abnormalities, thus becoming the founder of Australian psychotherapy.
In 1922, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, Elton Mayo immigrated to the United States and taught at the Wharton School of Management at the University of Pennsylvania.
During this period, Elton Mayo once explained the behavior of industrial workers from a psychological perspective, believing that the influencing factors were multiple and no single factor could play a decisive role. This became the theoretical basis for his later classification of organizations as social systems.
In 1923, Elton Mayo conducted an experimental study on the impact of workshop working conditions on worker turnover and productivity in a textile factory near Philadelphia.
In 1926, he entered Harvard University's School of Business Administration to specialize in industrial research, and worked at Harvard University until his retirement.
The Hawthorne Experiment, a nine-year experimental study conducted at the Hawthorne Factory of the Western Electric Company in the United States, truly opened the door to the study of human behavior in organizations.
The original intention of the Hawthorne Experiment was to try to find ways to improve labor productivity by improving external factors such as working conditions and environment. From 1924 to 1932, four stages of experiments were conducted: lighting test, relay assembly worker group test,
Large-scale interviews and study of patch panel wiring studios.
However, the test results were unexpected: regardless of whether the working conditions (light intensity, length of rest time, factory temperature, etc.) were improved or eliminated, the output of the experimental group and the non-experimental group continued to rise; in the experiment, piece-rate wages had an impact on production
When looking at the influence of efficiency, we found that there is a tacit understanding within the production group. Most workers intentionally limit their output, otherwise they will be ignored and excluded by the group. Incentive wages do not maximize workers' performance as traditional management theory believes.
Improve production efficiency; in a large-scale interview experiment that lasted two years, employees were able to talk about their ideas without restraint and vent their frustrations. As a result, their attitudes changed and productivity was improved accordingly.
The theory of human relations is a relatively complete new management theory, which began with the famous Hawthorne experiment conducted by psychologist Mayo and others at Harvard University in the 1920s.
Mayo.
The main contents of the theory of human relations: 1. Workers are "social beings", not simply "economic beings".
2. There are informal organizations in enterprises and should be taken seriously.
3. The morale or mood of workers is an important factor in determining production efficiency.
4. Enterprise managers must have the ability to handle personnel management.