Topic > The life of Elton Mayo and his key theories

IndexThe Elton theoryElton and food processingConclusionThe life of Elton Professor George Elton Mayo was born in Australia on 26 December 1880 (Elton Mayo: The Hawthorne Experiments Thinker). He was the eldest son of a civil engineer and a stay-at-home mom (Bourke, H.). Initially, after graduating from high school, he pursued the medical field but lost interest (Bourke, H.). In 1907 he went to the University of Adelaide and began studying philosophy and psychology (Bourke, H.). Mayo won numerous prizes and awards with his academics and in 1911 obtained a professorship at the University of Queensland teaching logic, ethics and psychology (Elton Mayo: The Hawthorne Experiments Thinker). While living in Brisbane, he lectured for the Worker's Educational Association and served on the university's war committee (Bourke, H.). This put him in a position to pioneer the psychoanalytic treatment of shell shock in military personnel (Bourke, H.). John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s approval brought Elton to the United States and he began his career at Pennsylvania University in 1923 (Elton Mayo: The Hawthorne Experiments Thinker). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay This was to investigate high labor turnover in a local textile industry (Bourke, H.). His research and efforts attracted the attention of the Harvard School of Business Administration and led to a new position as associate professor in 1926 (Bourke, H.). Once again, with a new position, he was assigned to a study involving the production of work at the Chicago plant of the Western Electric Company, known to the famous Hawthorn firm (Bourke, H.). Thanks to his commitment to this research he became a very influential scientist not only in the world of psychology but also a business theorist. Hawthorne Study The Hawthorne Study took place at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works. George Pennock welcomed Mayo's arrival at the Hawthorne Works in 1928 ("The Hawthorne Effect". ). The company currently had another study underway involving salary incentives which made them skeptical of Mayo trying to prove any of its links (the Hawthorne effect). Roethlisberger, another researcher who collaborated on Mayo's study, provided two examples of how to proceed with the study. First of all, the lighting in the experimental room was improved, production increased; but it also arose in the control room (Mayo, E. page 69). The opposite occurred when the lighting was reduced from 10 to 3 foot candles in the experimental room, production increased again and at the same time in the control room (Mayo, E. p. 69). Since the lighting appeared to have the opposite expected effect and no effect in relation to the control and experimental room, Mayo developed his investigation in two phases. The first phase was known as the “rehearsal room”. Up to this point, evidence has shown that individual workers have become a team, engaging in the project (Mayo, E. p. 71). Working conditions were now changed one at a time, including rest periods, shorter working days, shorter working weeks, and food with soup or coffee in the morning break (Mayo, E. p. 71). At first the results seemed to come slowly, but then they increased significantly. At every point in the investigation, employees were consulted about what was going to happen, this brought them to a point of free expression of ideas and more positive feelings towards management ( Mayo, E. p. 71). Over time, each girl increased her production by 400-500 unitsadditional units for girl. (Mayo, E. page 72). The workers themselves were surprised by their results, they felt as if they worked under less pressure and at a more relaxed pace, yet they produced an increasing number of units (Mayo, E. p. 72). Phase two of Hawthorne's discovery consisted of an interview program. This allowed workers to confide in and speak freely on any topic, under professional secrecy (Mayo, E. page 73). This was a great opportunity for management and employees to create a stronger bond. Elton notes in The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization that “the experience itself was unusual; there are few people in the world who have had the experience of finding someone intelligent, attentive and eager to listen without interruption to everything they have to say” (Mayo, E. page 73). This involvement was not aimed at employees but at management. Allowing them to learn to listen to their people and not listen to respond. Mayo created rules to guide the interviewer and they were listed as follows (Mayo, E. page 74): Give your full attention to the person being interviewed and make it clear that you are doing so.Listen – don't talkNever argue; never give advice. Listen: a. What it means.b. What he doesn't want to say.c. What he cannot say without help.5. As you listen, trace temporarily and for subsequent correction the (personal) model presented to you. To test this, occasionally summarize what has been said and present it for comment.6. Remember that everything said must be considered a personal confidence and not disclosed to anyone. With Elton's progress during phase one and phase two of his studies, his goal was clear. The psychological and social background that Mayo had obtained through years of school and his work at Pennsylvania University and later at Harvard, caused him to think about people. In this case, thanks to his experience with the workers of the Hawthorne plant, he focused on them. In the first phase, he wanted to look at how they manage incentives and how this affects overall production levels. These women in the experimental group not only increased their production numbers, but formed a team of companions that had effects on the individuals after the experiment. In the second phase, he challenged managers to improve their listening skills to create a better atmosphere for employees. None of these placed a physical shift in how they did their jobs, but it altered their mental state and perception of the job and individuals in higher positions. Taking Fredrick Taylor's theory of getting the most out of a worker, but this is intrinsic and rather extrinsic. Elton's theory Elton Mayo summarized his worldview in two assumptions. The first is how men are driven by their very nature to seek some basis for social alliance and mutual productive cooperation (Sarachek, B.). This basically means that men make an effort to connect with each other, but they want to do it in a way that they know from their past. The second assumption concerns the mental state of a person in direct connection with the environment in which he finds himself. “Adequate mental health and individual satisfaction. As well as soliciting more productive cooperation between individuals and between groups to which they feel affiliated (Sarachek, B.). The theory of "universal cooperation" considered Mayo's goal was intended not to omit the innate fear that man has of the "stranger" (Sarachek, B. ). Top management falls into the stigma of being less staffed and more fluid than those who work online and shuffle on a daily basis. Mayo also works on a plus dimension.