308 Part 3 Group and Organizational CommunicationAngela Trethewey (2013) discuss the work of Mary
Parker Follett (1868–1933), a Boston social worker who
developed new and seemingly radical ideas about lead-
ership, community, and communication. She believed
that “only cooperation among people working together
in groups under a visionary leadership produced excel-
lence in the workplace, the neighborhood and the
community” (Eisenberg, Goodall, & Trethewey, 2013,
pp. 77–78). That was a far cry from the classical man-
agement approach. Follett and others set the stage for
the human relations approach to management, which
considers the human needs of organizational members
(enjoying interpersonal relationships, sharing ideas with
others, feeling like a member of a group, and so on).
The benefits of this approach came into sharper focus in the 1930s when
Harvard professors Elton Mayo and F. J. Roethlisberger conducted an experi-
ment at Western Electric’s Hawthorne plant in Cicero, Illinois, in order to
discover why employees were dissatisfied and unproductive. The research-
ers separated workers into two different rooms. In one room, the researchers
slowly increased the amount of light; in the other, the amount of light was held
constant. Much to the researchers’ surprise, both groups of workers showed an
increase in productivity, regardless of the amount of light they were exposed to.
Why? It turns out that the employees were motivated by the increased attention
they were receiving from management rather than the increased amount of light
(Eisenberg, Goodall, & Trethewey, 2013).
In organizations managed with the human relations approach, managers
express more interest in their employees (for example, asking them how they
are doing or giving them praise). They provide incentives for good work and
emphasize that “we’re all in this together,” so employees have a greater sense
of belonging to a larger cause or purpose. Organizational members are also
encouraged to interact with each other on a more personal level, allowing for
greater satisfaction and connectedness with the organization.Human Resources Approach
The human relations approach was an improvement over the classical one in
terms of considering that workers’ personal needs are important for their satisfac-
tion and productivity. But it fell short of valuing employees’ own perspectives and
goals regarding the organization. Thus, the human resources approach takes the
basic ideas of human relations and goes one step further. Specifically, it considers
employees as assets to the organization who can be fulfilled by participating and
contributing useful ideas (Eisenberg, Goodall, & Trethewey, 2013; Miller, 2009).
In Chapter 16, we will introduce you to Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy
of needs, which asserts that people must fulfill basic needs (such as obtaining
food and shelter) before they can achieve higher needs (such as finding friend-
ship, love, and enjoyable work). As you will discover, Maslow’s work is particu-
larly useful when discussing persuasive speaking, but it has also had a powerful
impact on communication in organizations. For example, managers learnedTHESE OOMPA
LOOMPAS from Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory
are responsible for rowing
a boat down the chocolate-
filled river and not much else!
© Warner Brothers/Courtesy Everett
Collection