Reference no: EM133862633

Question

Key Ideas in Human Relations Before we jump in and discuss the major theoretical thinkers who spawned the human-relations movement, we need to understand the basic characteristics of the theoretical developments in this time period. As with many theoretical movements, the notion of "human relations" was drawn by researchers after the fact. Specifically, Raymond E. Miles, a business professor at the University of California at Berkeley, is responsible for much of the work on crystallizing the notion of "human relations." Miles, in a famous article in the Harvard Business Review, discussed human relations as the natural knee-jerk reaction that many management theorists (along with workers and managers as well) had to Frederick Taylor's scientific management. Where Taylor viewed people as parts of a working machine, the human-relations approach shifted the viewpoint from the task to the worker. For the first time, workers were viewed as an important part of the organization that should be viewed holistically instead of as bundles of skills and aptitudes. As Miles noted, managers "were urged to create a 'sense of satisfaction' among their subordinates by showing interest in the employees' personal success and welfare." Most importantly, the goal of human relations was to make workers.