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Behavioral Science Movement

BANKS AND BANKING
SEE Financial Institutions

BARTER
SEE Currency Exchange; Economic Systems; Marketing;
Money

BEHAVIORAL
MANAGEMENT
THOUGHTS
SEE Management

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
MOVEMENT
The exact date of when the behavioral science, or human
relations, movement came into being is difficult to iden-
tify. However, it was not until the second half of the nine-
teenth century that much attention was paid to workers’ Abraham Harold Maslow (1908–1970). Psychologist
Abraham Maslow proposed his motivation theory in 1943.
needs, because there was little understanding of how those
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needs affect total worker productivity. Prior to that time,
most managers viewed workers as a device that could be
bought and sold like any other possession. Long hours,
of physical conditions, working hours, and working meth-
low wages, and miserable working conditions were the
realities of the average worker’s life. ods that would stimulate workers to produce at maximum
capacity. Yet by the time the Hawthorne studies were
Then, at the beginning of the twentieth century,
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915), one of the most completed ten years later, there was little doubt that they
were one of the most important organizational studies,
widely read theorists on management, introduced and causing the behavioral science movement to gather
developed the theory of scientific management. The basis
momentum. The major conclusion of the Hawthorne
for scientific management was technological in nature,
Studies was that attention to workers, not illumination,
emphasizing that the best way to increase output was to
improve the methods used by workers. According to this affected productivity. Essentially, then, the scientific man-
agement movement emphasized a concern for output,
perspective, the main focus of a leader should be on the
needs of the organization, not the needs of the individual while the behavioral science movement stressed a concern
worker. Taylor and his followers were criticized on the for relationships among workers.
grounds that scientific management tended to exploit Various individuals have made important contribu-
workers more than it benefited them. tions to the behavioral science movement. In 1943 psy-
In the 1920s and early 1930s the trend started by chologist Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) proposed a
Taylor was gradually replaced by the behavioral science theory of motivation according to which workers’ behav-
movement, initiated by Elton Mayo and his associates ior is determined by a wide variety of needs. Motivation
through the famous Hawthorne studies. Efficiency experts starts when an individual experiences a need; the individ-
at the Hawthorne, Illinois, plant of Western Electric ual then formulates a goal, which, upon achievement, will
designed research to study the effects of illumination on satisfy the need. Maslow (1954) identified these needs and
worker productivity. At first, nothing about this research arranged them in a hierarchy, positing that lower-level
seemed exceptional enough to arouse any unusual interest, needs must be satisfied, at least in part, before an individ-
since efficiency experts had long tried to find the ideal mix ual begins to strive to satisfy needs at a higher level.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE, SECOND EDITION 53