HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF OB

Phases of development of OB

Industrial Revolution

Scientific Management

Human Relations Movement

 HUMAN RELATIONS MOVEMENT
GREAT DEPRESSION

LABOR MOVEMENT

HAWTHORNE STUDIES
 Industrial Revolution

• ROBERT OWEN – 1800, A YOUNG

WELSCH FACTORY OWNER WAS ONE
OF THE FIRST TO EMPHASIZE THE
HUMAN NEEDS OF EMPLOYEES.

• FATHER OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

• Industry created surplus of goods and
knowledge that eventually gave workers
increased wages, shorter hours and more
work satisfaction.
• HR AS VITAL MACHINES TO INANIMATE
MACHINES

• 1835- ANDREW Ure published his “The

philosophy of Manufactures”, human
factor as one of the factors of production
, besides the mechanical and commercial
parts.
• J.N.TATA – SPECIAL INTEREST IN THE WELFARE
OF WORKERS
• PENSION FUND
• ACCIDENT COMPENSATION
• HE WAS DECADES AHEAD OF HIS TIME AND
MILES AHEAD OF HIS COMPETITIORS.
• EMPRESS MILLS EXPERIMENTS
 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
• IDEAS OF FREDERICK W.TAYLOR “FATHER OF
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT”

• 4 PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

 HUMAN RELATIONS-GREAT DEPRESSION

• STOCK EXCHANGE CRASH OF 1929 IN

AMERICA
• WIDE SPREAD UNEMPLOYMENT, DECLINE OF
PURCHASING POWER,COLLAPSE OF
MARKETS,LOWERING OF STANDARD OF
LIVING OF PEOPLE
• DECENT HOURS OF WORK, FAIR WAGES AND
ADEQUATE WORKING CONDITIONS WERE
SACRIFICED FOR MORE PRODUCTION

• TAYLOR, FORD AND SLOAN – GIVING LABOR

DUE SHARE
 LABOR MOVEMENT

• STRONG UNIONS

• EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

• SECONDARY ATTENTION GIVEN TO WAGES,

HOURS OF WORK AND CONDITIONS OF
EMPLOYMENT
 HAWTHORNE STUDIES

• ELTON MAYO “FATHER OF HUMAN RELATIONS

MOVEMENT”, CARRIED OUT AT THE WESTERN
ELECTRIC COMPANY’S HAWTHORNE WORKS IN
CICERO, A SUBURB OF CHICAGO, AND
Hawthorne Studies ARE CLOSELY LINKED WITH
THE NAME OF ELTON MAYO.
• WAS A PROFESSOR OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH
AT HARWARD SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION
• A series of productivity experiments conducted
at Western Electric from 1927 to 1932
• The Hawthorne Effect - the Psychology Behind
Employee Productivity
• The Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity
whereby subjects improve or modify an aspect
of their behavior being experimentally
measured simply in response to the fact that
they know they are being studied, not in
response to any particular experimental
manipulation
 What is the Hawthorne Effect?
• The Hawthorn Effect was a phenomenon that was
discovered during a productivity study at Hawthorne
Works, a electrical manufacturing company near
Chicago, during the 1920's and 1930's.
• The study was originally designed to test how worker
productivity was affected by changes in the work
environment such as lighting, additional breaks, and
adjusted work hours. According to the Hawthorne
Theory, worker productivity will increase strictly as a
result of workers' awareness of being observed.
• Each study began with an observation
period. The observation period allowed
researchers to secretly watch the
workers without them knowing.
• This preserved the integrity of the
original measures of productivity. This
usually lasted a couple weeks.
• DEVELOPMENT OF OB SINCE 1950 AND 1960
• After the observation period, the experiment
would begin. The workers were usually moved
into a special work environment where
researchers could control the elements of the
work environment. During the lighting
experiment, for example, workers were moved
into a room where the lighting could be
adjusted. The productivity was then measured
to see if there was a change.
• Harvard Business School and
the Hawthorne Experiments (1924-1933)
• In the 1920s Elton Mayo, a professor of Industrial
Management at Harvard Business School, and his
protégé Fritz J. Roethlisberger led a landmark study
of worker behavior at Western Electric, the
manufacturing arm of AT&T. Unprecedented in scale
and scope, the nine-year study took place at the
massive Hawthorne Works plant outside of Chicago
and generated a mountain of documents, from
hourly performance charts to interviews with
thousands of employees.