HUMANISTIC THEORY OF ADMINISTRATION: CHARACTERISTICS, ADVANTAGES - DUDAS - 2025

The theory or humanistic approach to management is a different perspective of management, based on the idea of ​​human needs and values, where people are important for an organization to achieve its objectives and function properly.

Human resources or human capital have always been considered the most important assets. These terms denote people as a means to achieve some organizational purpose, such as increased productivity or greater shareholder value.

Source: pexels.com

However, neither of these terms indicates the intrinsic worth of people as human beings. That inherent value, practitioners of the humanistic approach classify as dignity.

With this theory, employees are viewed not only as economic assets valued primarily for their productivity, but as people with complex needs and a desire to perform daily tasks that are meaningful and varied.

Implementing the concepts of the humanistic approach to administration is difficult, due to the complexity of human behavior and ethical issues in general, thus having many challenges.

Theory emphasis

This humanistic theory emphasizes the use of inner motivation to increase the qualification of personnel, thus increasing the economic efficiency of an organization.

It also underscores the need to formulate management objectives that incorporate humanistic values. For example, personal growth and well-being of the worker are taken into account to achieve optimal productivity in the company.

Additionally, work routines developed by organizations should provide workers with the opportunity to participate in decision-making.

Background

Scientific management focused on productivity and cost reduction, developing efficiency standards based on time and motion studies. His critics reproached the scientific management's emphasis on percentages and standards, which were the same for all workers.

There is little evidence that the quotas set for workers were unreasonable, or that workers who couldn't meet that quota were fired frequently.

However, the workers expressed their discomfort, complaining about the low standards of labor and low wages. This was called the fixed piece system.

Unions began to address workers' growing fear that all but a few elite employees would soon be out of work.

Even the United States government became involved in the conflict between managers and workers, asking Frederick Taylor to declare before Congress the objectives of his proposals.

Origin

It was out of this context that a new theory of management evolved, examining social rather than economic factors. The humanistic approach looked at individual worker and group dynamics for effective control.

The humanistic theory of management was developed in reaction to the earlier scientific management theory. It emphasized productivity and profit above all other concerns.

Humanist theorists based their arguments on the result of Hawthorne's experiments, conducted at the Western Electric Company in 1930.

This result emphasized the need for organizations to adopt humanistic management skills, foster group and individual interactions in the workplace, and develop social relationships.

The humanistic theory of management places great emphasis on interpersonal relationships.

Most of his concepts come from investigations of other theorists of organizational humanism. For example, Abraham Maslow, McGregor, Argyris, David McClelland, Rensis Likert, Robert Golombiewski, and Edgar Schein.

characteristics

Human dignity

Respect for the inherent dignity of employees is one of the defining characteristics of humanistic management.

This respect is transmitted through a reorganization of the administrative structure and processes of the company. This gives workers the highest level of autonomy and control over their own work.

A challenge with this approach is that, while it may appear to be aimed at improving employee job satisfaction, the real goal is to improve productivity.

If employees feel that the new processes and structures are really meant to manipulate them, they will respond with resentment or passive resistance.

Employees will only respond positively to this management style if management truly cares about the well-being of the employees.

Ethical complexities

Humanist theory initially focused on the relationship between the company and its employees, and between the employees and their work. More recently, business ethics and corporate social responsibility have been included in the concept.

The challenge in any form of business ethics is that the subject of ethics is confusing and complicated. Philosophers have been debating ethical questions for thousands of years, without reaching firm conclusions on many issues.

Even with the best of intentions, it would be difficult for an entrepreneur to constantly know what the best ethical option would be in any situation.

To address this question, an entrepreneur interested in humanistic management might investigate different philosophies of business ethics and adopt one as a consistent guide to decision making.

Identify stakeholders

Business decisions must be made in consultation with stakeholders. A stakeholder is any person or group of people who will be affected by a business decision.

Two challenges arise from this concept. One is that it is not always easy to identify all the stakeholders. The other is that stakeholders may have conflicting needs and priorities.

For example, a development project that brings much-needed jobs to one group of stakeholders may displace another group from their homes or pose environmental issues.

Balancing the conflicting demands of stakeholders will always be a challenging task in humanistic administration.

Advantage

According to this theory, the objectives of a company are designed by input from both management and workers. This leads to an increase in the commitment of subordinates towards the achievement of these stated objectives.

Leadership can adopt participatory democratic styles by increasing the flow of communication from subordinates to management.

Conversely, the organization's control processes can be derived from the self-control of subordinates, and not from the human resources department.

Disadvantages

Humanist theory attributes increased employee productivity to the alignment of work with human motivations and needs.

Thus, managers continue to participate in manipulation, as they continue to measure the success of employees by their productivity at work, rather than worrying about the satisfaction and well-being of the workers.

Management also bases job rotation, promotion, and rewards on employee productivity and economic benefits to the organization, rather than basing them on humanistic values ​​developed by employees.

Representatives

Mary Parker Follett

During his lifetime, his teachings were popular with businessmen. However, she was ignored by the male-dominated academic society, even though she attended Radcliffe and Yale Universities, and was asked to head the London School of Economics.

Now she is considered the "mother of modern administration." Follett developed many concepts, which he applied to business and management, such as:

Lateral processes in organizational hierarchies

The DuPont company applied this concept in the 1920s, as the first matrix-style organization.

A matrix org structure uses a grid, rather than a pyramid system, to illustrate reporting paths. An individual can report to both a functional manager and a product manager.

Informal processes in organizations

This is related to the idea of ​​authority derived from expertise, rather than from position or status.

For example, an informal group may form in a company, during or outside of official working hours, to socialize, form a union, or discuss work processes, without the knowledge of management.

Win win

To describe the cooperation between managers and workers. He also spoke about empowerment and facilitation, rather than control.

Constructive conflict

Promote conflict resolution in a group based on constructive peer consultation, rather than compromise, submission, or struggle.

Elton may

Elton Mayo was an expert sociologist in organizational theory, industrial psychology, and human relations.

His main idea was to modify the mechanical model of organizational behavior. He replaced it with one with a greater interest in feelings, attitudes, motivation, and other aspects of the human subject.

Hawthorne experiments

They were a series of studies conducted at a Western Electric plant in 1930, during the heyday of scientific management.

The experiment was designed to isolate the factors that affected productivity in the workplace. The researchers offered and then took away benefits such as better lighting, breaks, shorter work hours, meals, and savings plans.

However, regardless of whether the change was positive or negative, the productivity of the test subjects always increased.

For example, by increasing lighting, productivity increased, as expected. What was not expected was that as the lighting decreased, productivity continued to increase. At this point, Elton Mayo got involved.

May Results

He advised the researchers to adjust the way they interacted with the workers (subjects). A new trial was started with a smaller group.

Previous experiments had collected data from subjects by asking "yes or no" questions to more easily quantify their responses. However, Mayo advised the researchers to use the undirected interview method.

This allowed the researchers to be more informal, developing a relationship with the workers. Mayo found that there were several reasons why productivity increased, despite benefits being taken away.

He theorized that workers were more motivated by social dynamics than by economic or environmental factors. He published his findings in 1933 in "The Human Problems of an Industrialized Civilization."

References

1. Lumen Learning (2019). Humanistic Management. Taken from: courses.lumenlearning.com.
2. International Humanistic Management Association (2017). What is Humanistic Management? Taken from: humanisticmanagement.international.
3. Scott Thompson (2019). Challenges of Humanistic Management. Small Business - Chron.com. Taken from: smallbusiness.chron.com.
4. Quique Hernandez (2019). Humanistic approach administration. Taken from: academia.edu.
5. Jane Doucet (2019). Theory of Organizational Humanism. Bizfluent. Taken from: bizfluent.com.
6. Derek Murray (2019). The Humanistic Perspective on Management. Taken from: censis.com.