The scientific study into productivity improvement dates at least back to the pioneering work of Frederick Taylor in the second decade of this century (Sisk, 1987). His scientific management began the development of the empirical foundations for the analysis of employee productivity. Later, in the 1930s, studies by Elton Mayo led to the discovery of what was termed the Hawthorne Effect, which led to the development of the human relations approach to management (Sisk, 1987). The human relations approach postulates that treating employees less as if they are automatons will lead to improved productiv ity.
There were studies of productivity between those of Taylor and Mayo, and there have been countless studies subse quent to Mayo's studies at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant. The studies of Taylor and Mayo remain significant, however, in that they continue to define the poles of the continuum of human resource management practices, in the context of obtain ing optimal productivity.
A concern with organizational performance (productivity) is one of the more significant of the many problems which con front managers in organizations in both the public and the private sectors (Drucker, 1980). The costs to an organization of sub standard performance involve (1) profit deterioration
(private sector), or budget overruns (public sector), (2) the diversion of financial and human resources from productive to diagnostic and corrective activities, and (3) the introduction of discontinuity into organizational operations (Peters, & Waterman, 1982).
The problem of productivity improvement is particularly acute for public sector organizations, where it is often argued that the inherently less efficient character of such organiza tions (in comparison with private sector organizations) dictate against the attainment of meaningful productivity improvements (Register, 1988). In this context, it is often held that cer tain efficien...