Social Ethics in Management Philosophy being affected by Human Relations Approach

Management philosophy till early 20th century was guided mainly by classical theorists. When for the first time Human Relations Theory was propounded after conducting the Hawthorne experiments from 1924-32, a big blow was given to the mechanistic approach adopted by the management and then social factors found their way in the management philosophy.

Below are some arguments through which this had been done – 

1. Taylorism and Classical theorists considered a worker as an isolated individual in an organization nurturing his own self interest whereas Roethlisberger, Dickinson and Mayo in HRT showed the inherent need and desire of an individual to belong to a group for approval, recognition and status. Mayo also carried on the analysis of employee and employer relation.

2. HRT looked into he personalized human psychology of the worker whereas previous theories only emphasized monetary incentives as their need.

3. HRT says that in a formal Organization many informal groups are there which regularly exercise effective social control over their attitudes and work habits.

4. HRT is based on 3 features – 

1. Integrative Process 2. Willing Cooperation of workers 3. Satisfaction of workers. 

This means that workers need to be integrated with work with their 100% will and satisfaction should be in their minds when they do the job.

5. Ventilation therapy says that workers should be given a chance to present their views having equal voice with management on organizational dynamics. This will give them immense satisfaction.

From above points we can sum up that HRT enhances the social status of a worker in an organization and provides him non monetary incentives which are equally important as monetary incentives are.