Elton Mayo Human Relations

This essay sample on Elton Mayo Human Relations provides all necessary basic information on this matter, including the most common “for and against” arguments. Below are the introduction, body and conclusion parts of this essay.

Non- financial incentives are non-financially related schemes that TK Maxx uses to supplement pay of their employees, and to keep them working for them and not other firms. TK Maxx is aware that pay is not the only factor at work in motivating their recruits, so they invest more money into the employee benefits.

These include things like social interaction and praise. These non-financial incentives can help associates of TK Maxx to achieve their higher needs not of a financial quality, including social and self esteem.

Elton Mayo’s Human Relations School Taylor’s ideas were introduced and sometimes they worked and failed. As a result, people thought there must be more to motivation than just money. Mayo thought that workers are motivated whenever a manager takes a personal interest in them, and in the workers perspective, this admiration is perceived as a complement to them.

For example in involving them in the decision making process.

Social Factors For instance, when it came to the planning of the Christmas party, the manager involved all the employees by asking them where they would like the venue to be. Elton Mayo also thought that firms need to meet the personal satisfaction of their workers; firms need to recognise that employees have personal goals, as well as company goals they want to attain.

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Therefore, firms should encourage teams of employees to socialise with each other.

Motivation In The Workplace Essay

As a result, TK Maxx organises annually Christmas parties, to enable their associates to meet personal goals such as social esteem, and enable opportunities for social interaction. With these social factors at work, my productivity levels will be enhanced and due to a greater sense of satisfaction from the workplace. This can also bring about less boredom as the company of others can keep me happy and being involved in the firm’s decision making process can be rewarding. By gaining social approval from my colleagues during social interaction and a self sense of value in the firm, an associate like me can then climb up to the social esteem step of ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’.

However, not everyone in TK Maxx will be motivated by being included in the decision’s the firm makes. For example, when it came to planning the venue for a TK Maxx Christmas party for 2007 at a meeting, I did not want to participate because my intentions for joining the TK Maxx team was for a good pay rate and an insight into the latest fashion styles released, rather than seeking social opportunities and responsibilities

This can conflict with Mayo’s ‘Human Relations School’ concept as I refused to be involved in a TK Maxx decision making process. Herzberg’s Hygiene Factors As well as motivation factors being at work to enhance workers productivity levels, ‘Herzberg’ believed that there were ‘hygiene factors’ incorporated in the mix. What differentiated these factors from motivation factors was that, hygiene factors provided the employees with things that would keep them content in the workplace thereby will become less likely to resign and the firm’s annual turnover rate can be reduced eventually. These included things such as safe working conditions and adequate rest breaks.

Motivation factors according to Herzberg only encourage employees to work to their maximum potential for optimum productivity, such as a promotion and more responsibility i.e. for example, being involved in the firm’s decision making processes. They do not focus on the employee staying with the firm, but rather the employee working industriously for the firm. The hygiene factors supplement the motivating factors, so if the hygiene factors of TK Maxx are poor like the cleanliness of the workplace, then their motivating factors like pay would not work.

However, according to Taylor’s ‘Scientific Management’ theory, employees will only be motivated by earning money, so therefore there would not be a need for hygiene factors to be present in order for employees to be motivated in the workplace. Moreover, Taylor’s ideas of motivation were introduced in the early twentieth century, and so this theory may not be very relevant to the motivation needs of workers in the twenty-first century.

As a result, TK Maxx is a ‘twenty-first century’ business and they are up to date with what factors are required to motivate their employees. So, they go by this theory by providing hygiene factors such as rest breaks, to keep employees content as well as motivated, which together help the firm to maximise their chances of retaining them and reducing their annual turnover rate. Rest Breaks TK Maxx offer all their associates rest breaks for durations that correspond to their shift length. For example, half an hour rest breaks for those who work between four to six hours. These rest breaks motivate me because after a few hours of industrious working, I get exhausted and so my body needs to rest and restore energy with food and drink in order to maintain the high productivity levels.

However, if I was not to receive these rest breaks, my performance levels of working will deteriorate because of physiological requirements such as food and drink. Therefore I will be de-motivated and unsatisfied because of lack of opportunity to meet these needs. Elton Mayo’s Relay Assembly Test Room Study The study involved six women assembling telephone equipment. Women in separate rooms worked forty-eight hours a week, including weekends, without tea breaks in rooms identical to where they worked. The study began to introduce and take away rest periods, and also introduced changes to start and finish times as well as changing the hours worked. As a result, productivity levels became high and this may have been due to opportunity for social interaction during work and rest periods. These high levels were maintained even when these conditions were returned to normal.

TK Maxx have adopted Elton Mayo’s concept of giving their associates rest breaks thereby increasing productivity levels. As a result, I am motivated to maintain high standards of productivity levels in the workplace. In the workplace, I am able to interact with fellow colleagues whilst working and this had led to the development of informal social relationships. In order to maintain the opportunities for social interaction, I have been motivated to maintain the required high levels of productivity to satisfy TK Maxx so that I do not risk losing my job, thereby losing these opportunities for social interaction.

For example, I can recall one shift staying an extra hour in work although I was given permission to go home at the end of my shift. However, the social atmosphere among me and my colleagues was so lively that I wanted to stay behind and help them out. As a result, I was under the influence of the ‘Hawthorne effect’, where a strong level of social interaction motivated employees for a consistent high level of productivity. However, other associates in TK Maxx cannot all be motivated by social opportunities, so the motivation concept cannot apply to all employees of the firm. Therefore, TK Maxx has other means of motivating their employees.