Learning Outcomes
Show In contrast to scientific management, with its focus on optimizing man as a machine, behavioral management focuses on worker behavior and motivations. Specifically, behavioral management theory is concerned with how to manage productivity by understanding worker motivation, including expectations, needs and interests, and group dynamics. Behavioral management theory is sometimes referred to as the human relations movement due to its focus on the human dimension of work.[7] Theorists who contributed to behavioral management include Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo, and Abraham Maslow. Mary Parker Follett Although she was a contemporary of Taylor and the Gilbreths, author and advisor Mary Parker Follett had a very different frame of reference and her ideas form the basis of our understanding of modern organizational behavior. A
former social worker, she understood power dynamics and stressed the importance of human psychology and human relations rather than a mechanical or scientific approach to work and management-employee interactions. In its biography, ThoughtCo. notes that “Follett was one of the first people to integrate the idea of organizational conflict into management
theory.”[8] And, indeed, her idea of conflict as a place of opportunity is even more relevant today. Specifically, Follett proposed that conflict, rather
than requiring compromise, could be a stimulus for innovation. In an essay written in 1924, Follett coined the terms "power-over" and "power-with," differentiating between coercive and participative power and demonstrating how “power-with” can be greater than "power-over." Although her work is rarely or only marginally covered, her ideas have shaped theories in psychology and management, including Abraham Maslow’s work. For perspective, management consultant Peter Drucker, whom BusinessWeek
referred to as “the man who invented management” called Follett the "prophet of management" and his "guru."[9]
Elton Mayo In 1924, Australian sociologist Elton Mayo, who later became an industrial research professor at Harvard, began a series of studies that demonstrated that employee motivation is heavily influenced by social and situational factors. Mayo’s findings, referred to as the “Hawthorne Effect,” marked a radical change in motivational theory and management practice. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs In his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation,” psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed what is considered the classic theory of needs: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.[11] He proposed that people are motivated by five categories of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. These needs are represented as a pyramid, with basic physiological needs such as food, water and shelter at the base and the need for
self-actualization at the top. Practice QuestionLicenses and Attributions |