Humanistic Era Reflection Paper

Holly M. Sharp 4-5: Humanistic Era Reflection Paper MGMT435 – F1WW (FA10) Professor Melinda Short 20 Oct 10 Humanistic Era starts to have more of a focus on an individual’s behavior. The transition from the Classical Era to the Humanistic Era is highly dependent on changes in society, politics, and economic depression going on around that time. The Humanistic Era is made up of two main perspectives: The Human Relations Perspective and the Social Person Perspective. During the Humanistic Era’s Human Relations Perspective, companies began to be aware of their role in a larger perspective and environment. Managers also began to understand a need to balance social needs of their staff with the economic needs of their company. Behavioral scientists brought attention to the fact that an employee may have a desire for a paycheck, but they also have an equal desire for group inclusion and taking part in the success of a company. There were many great contributors to the Human Relations Perspective. George Elton Mayo is known as the founder of the Human Relations Movement, and is well known for his research on the Hawthorne Studies. The Hawthorne Studies were the beginning point for a dramatic change in how organizations and managers began to not view workers as machines, but began to view the role of human behavior as dynamic. In 1931, one company went on record saying the following about the outcome of the Hawthorne Studies: “Upon analysis, only one thing seemed to show a continuous relationship with this improved output. This was the mental attitude of the workers. From their conversations with each other and their comments to the test observers, it was not only clear this area of employee reactions and feelings was a fruitful field for industrial research (Gautschi, 1989).” There were many other great contributors to this perspective. There was Mary Parker Follet who recognized what she called

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