Reviewing Human Relations in Concepts and Practice

Author : Ami Fitri Utami, SE., MSM

Reference: Daniel A. Wren (2005) ; “The History of Management Thought”, Ch.17, 5th Edition

This chapter is examines two major focuses. The first focus is the impact of human relations thinking on academia, industry, and organized labor while the second focus is the critical review of things related into the Hawthorne experiments e.g: assumptions, methods and the results.

The examination about the impact of human relation on teaching and practice itself begin with the reviews of people who concerned about this issues. It was started with the talk of Robert Owen who really concerned to the human as worker rather than machine as the worker in that era. Than, it is continued with Taylor with his human behaviour, and continued with other actors. This part is reviewing all the “actors” in the human relations practice, and showed that the view and the theory are keep evolving from one to another. From Owen to Munsterberg , from the social gospel era into the more efficient scientific management era. These are the varried beginning that human relations would spread and dominate an era in management thought.

The thought are evolving and so with the practice. However, the Hawthorne studies always said to be the roots of the human relations movements rather than other studies. This is caused by the Scholar Halos, which means as some distastes or disregard for anything that is found by nonacademicians. This phenomena become the trigger for Harvard and MIT to provide a legitimate cornerstone for the study of human relations.

However, although the human relations gained academic credibility the bias of this study was still arised. It was until 1940s and early 1950s, the feelings of people were more important than the logics of charts, rules and directives are typically postulated. It was said that it were heuristic rather that specific or even systematic. This is why, the human relations ideas led to a movement that took organized labor into consideration. The feeling of the people are important but still we need some systematic and more logical way to organized it. (continued)