Elton W. Mayo was a major contributor to the so-called Human Relations Movement, which was a key feature in the development of traditional human resource management (HRM) that took place after World War I (Reshef, 2008). Mayo responded to a changing business environment after the war in which there was a need to increase industrial productivity by reducing industrial disputes, worker absenteeism, and turnover; and standardizing working conditions and pay structures. Mayo's efforts were focused on resolving problems related to the restriction of output (Reshef, 2008). This essay will describe Mayo's contributions to organizational theory, specifically to HRM, arguing that he was convinced that the industrialization of society had not improved the social status of the worker and that until this occurred, conflict would be endemic in the workplace.
According to Sarachek (1968), Mayo based his vision of the world on two vital assumptions. He held that most men are compelled by their nature to seek social alliances and productive cooperation with each other. Secondly, he believed that appropriate alterations in the environment occupied by the individual would foster mental health and individual satisfaction and call forth more productive cooperation between individuals and between the groups with which they were affiliated. He further asserted that conflict in the workplace and in other settings was not the inevitable result of human nature, but was the consequence of faulty social organization (Sarachek, 1968). The task of the organization, therefore, was to ensure that working conditions were conducive to creating affiliation among workers and between workers and the organization and to make the workplace and the work role capable of fostering satisfaction among workers (Scott & Hart, 1971).
Mayo's best known work occurred during a series of research efforts between 1927 and 1932 which were conducted at the Western El...