Psychology of management

The school of “human relationships” 
Since the end of 1930s, in foreign papers there began to appear ever more often critical 
remarks concerning representatives of “scientific management” school. There were criticized 
mechanistic and biological viewings of a human involved in production, prevailing orientation 
on economic problems of organizations. An ever greater understanding got the psychologists’ 
opinions that human’s motivation for a more productive work can be enticed by stimuli other 
than material remuneration. 
In 1940s there forms the school of “human relationships” as an alternative to 
management directed mainly at the final result. Not denying all the useful that Taylor and his 
followers created concerning production rationalization, the supporters of this school were trying 
to fill their methods with humane content. 
Mary Parker Follet (1868 – 1933) was one of the first Americans to show special interest 
to the questions of management psychology, especially stressing the study of human relations. 
She also attempted to establish a close connection between the stages of management’s evolution 
– scientific and administrative management, and the school of human relationships. 
The most well-known representative of the school of “human relationships” was an 
American sociologist and psychologist Elton Mayo (1880 – 1949). He is considered to be one of 
the founders of industrial sociology and social psychology. Mayo in his books “Human problems 
of industrial civilization” (1945), “Political problems of industrial civilization” (1947) marked 
that labor got dehumanized and stopped bringing happiness to people. Mayo paid great attention 
to rise in labor productivity. His experiments in Hotorn (near Chicago) at “Western Electric” 
company between 1927 and 1939 brought him later the widest acclaim both in the USA and 
abroad. This research became the foundation for the doctrine of human relationships and opened 
new vistas in management. The research program of Mayo included the study of a wide range of 
problems: analysis of a group influencing behavior, motivation and values of an individual, 
means of communication and ways of transferring information to employees in the process of 

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labor activity, specifics of their speech. The results of experimental research enabled Mayo to 
come to the following conclusions: 
1. Humans are social creatures, they have to work in a team. The behavior of employees 
and managers of lower and higher ranks can be understood and predicted on the grounds of 
analysis of their group relationships. A group exists if people communicate with each other in 
the process of achieving some goal. A group does not exist without a common goal and common 
interest as the connecting element. 
2. All group members in their behavior keep to group norms. Employees act or make 
decisions more often as group members than as individuals. Group norms are ideas formed in the 
minds of group members. They determine what exactly employees should do and what is 
expected of them under certain circumstances. Ideas are norms if they are sustained by group 
sanctions. Norms are very steadfast, subordination to them is demanded for the sake of the group 
(e.g. “don’t let the chaps down”). 
3. A worker’s output is determined by rather group norms than his/her physical abilities. 
Authority of group norms is sustained by means of moral influence. For example, those who 
worked too assiduously were nicknamed “Speed Miracle” or “King of Dexterity”. The one 
whose output was lower than the group standard was called a dawdler, or a slacker. So, the group 
had certain means of influencing a person. 
4. Production managers should be centered rather on people than on production. Strict 
hierarchy and bureaucratic organization are incompatible with human nature which strives for 
freedom. An employee’s social and psychological status at an enterprise has quite the same 
importance as work, industrial process itself. 
Such are the general trends in management development in the first half of the XXth 
century. During the following decades in some countries there developed principal differences in 
this process. The most distinctly (in the sense of comparison), especially in the practice of 
management they were displayed in the USA and Japan. 
Japan
Human psychology is closely connected with people’s culture. The system of Japanese 
management is based on social values and cultural traditions customary in this country. Japanese 
managers take into consideration traditional values and national customs. It was harmonious 
combination of modern methods, technologies, constant introduction of innovations on the one 

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hand, and traditional values the culture of relations on the other hand, that helped Japanese to 
achieve social-and-economic prosperity. 
Japanese managers have created their own model of production and social management 
by borrowing the most valuable experience from the world theory and practice, from the 
American ones first of all. But the specifics of the Japanese management differ in essence from 
that of America and is characterized by predominant orientation on human factor. Nowadays, 
Japanese managers are the best specialists in the world in human relations. They take into 
account and actively use the Japanese people’s mentality that has formed historically, such 
national traits as exceptional diligence, discipline, practicality, and cooperativeness. In the 
Japanese national character there brightly manifest neatness, frugality, politeness, commitment to 
traditions, devotion to authority, disposition to experience adoption, self-possession, desire to 
group cooperation, desire for learning, strongly developed aesthetic feeling. To the most 
important values of the Japanese society one can relate: duty (debt), cooperation, and 
collectivism. In every Japanese consciousness there is a deeply rooted realizing his/her debt to 
the whole nation in general. Both managers and workers consider economic development of their 
country as their duty. The Japanese culture is based on the primacy of group interests, while 
personal interests are second-ordered, so people have to act together, cooperating with each other 
for social prosperity. The Japanese collectivism is shown in the way that they limit their personal 
needs for the sake of concordance and harmony of their relations with colleagues at work. In the 
Japanese language there is a notion not having an English equivalent and meaning the 
importance and value of a personality being recognized by others. The word “eme” means 
psychological dependence on a group a person belongs to. Every Japanese wants to be 
recognized, esteemed, and even loved by the others. A Japanese needs being protected and 
treated kindly by the others. The need in eme is connected with the sense of duty – the one who 
is loved, cared for must in due turn to respond to others with warmth. The need in eme may take 
extreme forms. Unnatural manifestation of eme may display itself in total dependency on others, 
lack of initiative, shyness, self-doubt. Nevertheless, eme connects the Japanese closer than 
people of other nationalities. 
An American scientist I. Alstall, on having analyzed the activities of many Japanese 
companies, formulates the five principles of Japanese management.