Public Administration Made by Elton Mayo - Research Paper Example

George Elton Mayo was born in Adelaide, Australia on December 26, 1880. His father was a civil engineer and head of a respected colonial family. Elton was the second child of seven children, one of his brothers died shortly after birth. He began his formal education at Queen’s School where he excelled in Latin, French, Chemistry, Mathematics, among other subjects. After three years he started to attend St Peter’s College and studied there for the next two years. His grandfather was a founding member of St Peter’s College and it was also his father’s alma mater. Elton’s dislike for the school led to moments of depression and withdrawal. He did not have the academic success as that of his former school. When he took the Senior Public Examinations for entry to the University of Adelaide he almost failed English, French, Mathematics and Chemistry. The Mayo’s family had envisioned a career path for Elton that was patterned after his paternal grandfather who was a noted medical doctor in his community. Elton eventually obtained good passes in his subjects and in 1899 became a student of medicine at University of Adelaide. His first two years at university brought him academic success as well as popularity. The university was lacking in many facilities and life for many students was becoming increasingly unbearable and uncomfortable. Consequently, the Adelaide University Union was formed and Elton became a member of the committee. He was instrumental in bringing about a number of changes. Not only did he help in promoting the social life of the members but he also inspired discussions and debates about many topical issues. They were successful in obtaining some facilities that made their lives on campus more comfortable. This success and comfort was short lived, however, as Elton failed his university examinations in 1900. Between 1901 and 1903 he attended the University of Edinburgh as well as a medical school at St. Georges’ Hospital in London. In December of 1903 he finally came to the conclusion that he was not comfortable in pursuing a career in medicine. Shortly after, he went to West Africa to work with a gold mining company. He developed health problems in Africa and returned to England after a few months suffering from dengue fever. He then turned his attention to writing and he started writing articles for newspapers mostly about Australian politics and social life. He did not gain enough success in writing to sustain him. He by then felt that his life was a failure. Loneliness and depression became his only companions until he joined the Working Man’s College where he taught classes for a brief period of time. He returned to Australia in 1905 and found a job at a printing firm where he worked until 1910. After meeting William Mitchell, a noted lecturer in Australia, Elton decided to pursue a degree in philosophy. In 1911 he took up a position at the University of Brisbane where he worked as a lecturer and held other responsibilities within the university. He got married in 1913. In 1923 Elton won a scholarship to do research at the University of Pennsylvania. He moved to Harvard Business School in 1926. There he became a professor of industrial research. It was during his stay in the United States of America that he became known for his contributions to public administration. During the last two years of his life, he returned to Britain where he continued to give lectures. After suffering a stroke he died in September of 1949. Mayo’s major publications were “The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization” published in 1933 and “The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization” published in 1949. In the first publication Mayo discussed the findings of the Hawthorne experiments that were done within the factory of the same name in Chicago. In the second publication he discussed topics relating to the workplace. These range from industrial development to the economy. He also examined the history and development of research in industry. Between 1924 and 1927 Mayo assumed direct responsibility for certain experiments carried out at the Hawthorne Work of the General Electric Company in Chicago. He set out to find out how fatigue and monotony affected job productivity and also the effect of illumination in the working area. He put six female factory workers in segregation and made changes to the hours of the workweek and the work day, the number of rest breaks and the time of the lunch hour. Through these experiments he made valuable contributions to organization development especially in the areas of human relations and motivation theory. His studies in psychology and philosophy prepared him well for the undertaking of these experiments. He developed a keen interest in the working of the human mind in relation to work. The Western Electric experiment was primarily directed not to the external condition but to the inner organization. By strengthening the ‘temperamental’ inner equilibrium of the workers, the Company enabled them to achieve a mental ‘steady state’ which offered a high resistance to a variety of external conditions (Mayo, Thompson, 2003, p.75). Through the findings of his experiments he made several conclusions. Among these conclusions are that work is a group activity and this primarily patterned the social world of the adult; the need for recognition, security and sense of belonging is more important in determining workers' morale and productivity than the physical conditions under which he works; group collaboration does not occur by accident; it must be planned and developed. If group collaboration is achieved the human relations within a work plant may reach a cohesion which resists the disrupting effects of adaptive society. The experiments had far reaching effects. Mayo was recognized for his pioneering contributions to industrial relations and the human side of administration (Wood p 143). Many industries tried to motivate workers by improving job conditions which in turn would increase job productivity. Those who support the Hawthorne effect believe that persons who are the controlled elements in any experiment normally improve their behavior not because of any one single element but through a combination of factors relating to all the attention that they receive. Through his experiments Mayo has been credited for the term “Hawthorne effect” which within the genre of industrial psychology, it is being defined as a phenomenon of the group-based observation studies. In the field of Public Administration Mayo made several inroads in determining the role of both employer and employee. On the part of the worker Mayo demonstrated that “workers are not machines and scientific management’s emphasis on the ‘one best way’ to work had to be tempered to recognize the effect of group behavior” (McKinney, Howard p 162). This stresses the need for public administrators to focus and give much attention to the emotional, psychological and social needs of the worker. It also shows that groups influence individual behavior and behavior is closely related to sentiments (McKinney, Howard p. 163). The influence of the group is very strong as it is the factor rather than the monetary returns that determines individual worker output. Mayo’s contribution to the role of the employer showcased further training for the administrator. He believed that social collaboration in the workplace can be improved through the creation of administrative elites trained who are trained in related techniques. Mayo’s arguments and beliefs were so strong that after a series of Harvard lectures a call for the need for university-trained administrators focused on the work of its Business School (p. 158). He also believed that managers should be more involved with the workers and should shoulder more of the responsibilities that were placed within the job description of the foremen and middle managers. Some of the weaknesses of Mayo’s work stem from the conclusions made after carrying out the experiments. Since it has been determined that the workers improved when they were aware that they were closely supervised other important factors that contribute to job improvement were largely ignored. His conclusion that group relations had a greater impact than monetary rewards was only a half-truth when one examines the conditions of the experiments. The women in the experiment were paid according to their output therefore they were motivated economically to improve their production. Mayo may have arrived at the conclusion that a general improvement in production was due to social factors such as effective management and morale because of his upbringing and struggles that he had to face in life. It is possible that he may have been using his personal experiences in accounting for the conclusions of his experiments. His belief systems were largely influenced by a certain extent by his studies of psychology, philosophy, sociology among other subject areas that were humanistic in their approach. His failure to get a good grasp of medicine and the natural sciences fuels his scant regard to the non human factors affecting an improvement in productivity in the work place. Although latter day inventions were non existent during his era, Mayo made it obvious that he did not believe that technology could play an integral part in industrial relations. Nevertheless, Mayo made invaluable contribution to public administration. His experiments and writings have provoked new school of thoughts as well as modification of his theory. Mayo, E. Thompson, K. (2003). The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization. London: Routledge. McKinney, J.B. Howard, L.C. (1998). Public administration: Balancing Power and Accountability. Westport: Praeger Publishers. Trahair, R.C. (2006). Elton Mayo The Humanist Temper: With a foreword by Abraham Zaleznik. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.   Wood, J. C. Wood, M. C. (2004). George Elton Mayo: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management. London: Taylor and Francis. http://www.economist.com/business/management/displaystory.cfm   Read More