Course code: LMS 215
Organizational
Communication
BS 3rd Semester
Maria N. Shahid
Room#19,
Leadership & Management Studies (LMS),
National Defence University (NDU),
Islamabad. Pakistan.
Organizational Communication (Course code: LMS 215) 2
Agenda
Human Relations and Human Resources Approaches
(Cont’d)
▪ The Human Resources Approach
▪ Communication in Human Relations and Human Resources Organizations
▪ Human Relations and Human Resources Organizations Today
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The Human Resources Approach
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The Human Resources Approach
▪ The human resources approach acknowledges contributions of classical and,
especially, human relations approaches to organizing.
▪ What human resources theorists add to the mix is an emphasis on the cognitive
contributions employees make with their thoughts and ideas.
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Impetus for the Human Resources Approach
▪ The Hawthorne studies served as a springboard that moved thinking about
organizations from the classical school to the human relations school.
▪ No single study or incident induced dissatisfaction with the ideas of human
relations theorists.
▪ These views are still widely held today.
Organizational Communication (Course code: LMS 215) 6
(Cont’d)
▪ However, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, there was a growing feeling that models
of employee needs were insufficient for describing, explaining, and managing the
complexities of organizational life.
▪ In particular, there was concern about whether human relations principles really
worked and whether they could be misused by organizational practitioners.
Organizational Communication (Course code: LMS 215) 7
(Cont’d)
Do Human Relations Principles Work?
▪ However appealing, though, there is evidence that many of the ideas of human
relations theorists simply do not hold up when put to the empirical test.
▪ There is limited support for the conclusions of the Hawthorne studies or for the
specific theoretical propositions of scholars like Maslow and McGregor.
▪ In addition, this lack of support can also be seen when we consider the general
principles on which the human relations movement rests.
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(Cont’d)
This relationship is sometimes
seen as a problem.
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(Cont’d)
▪ Why aren’t satisfied employees also more productive employees?
▪ Humans are complicated, choice-making animals whose decisions about the
amount of effort they should spend on any particular activity are based on a
myriad of personal considerations.
Organizational Communication (Course code: LMS 215) 10
(Cont’d)
Misuse of Human Relations Principles
▪ Another factor that steered many to the human resources approach was the extent
to which tenets of the human relations movement could be used in a superficial or
manipulative way in organizations.
▪ It is also likely that this manipulative use of human relations ideas would fail to
satisfy worker needs.
Organizational Communication (Course code: LMS 215) 11
(Cont’d)
▪ The managers often don’t think employees have sufficient abilities and talents to
make high-quality decisions or to work independently.
▪ Miles (1965) first highlighted this problem many years ago in his article “Human
Relations or Human Resources.”
▪ Miles’s study highlights the difference between human relations and human
resources.
▪ Both human relations and human resources managers might advocate the same
kind of organizational behavior—but for very different reasons.
Organizational Communication (Course code: LMS 215) 12
What is the Human Relations Theory?
▪ The human relations theory is the ideology that emphasizes the need to prioritize
satisfaction among workers.
▪ It posits that the informal organization of the workplace structures and boosting
employee morale may increase employees' overall productivity.
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What is the purpose of Human Relations?
▪ Human relations helps foster employee relationships, reduce conflicts, promote
job satisfaction, and create a favorable working environment. It also helps promote
diversity, with open relations and teamwork key increased organizational
productivity.
Organizational Communication (Course code: LMS 215) 14
Example
▪ Jamal, the human resource manager,
gathers opinions and interacts with the
employees freely, which allows him to get
different views on matters of importance
to the workers.
▪ Occasionally, the management plans for
interaction forums between seniors and
their subordinates.
▪ This offers an opportunity for effective
engagement and interactions between
them, helping forge a positive bond.
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Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid
▪ Robert Blake and Jane Mouton developed their Managerial Grid (now called the
Leadership Grid and referred to in this chapter as the Managerial/Leadership
Grid) as a tool for training managers in leadership styles that would enhance
organizational efficiency and effectiveness and stimulate the satisfaction and
creativity of individual workers.
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(Cont’d)
▪ They began with the assumption that leaders will be most effective when they
exhibit both concern for people and concern for production, thus combining the
interests of classical management (concern for production) and human relations
(concern for people).
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(Cont’d)
▪ Blake and Mouton’s Managerial/Leadership Grid concentrates on how a manager
can combine the values of the human relations school and the classical school into
a leadership style that will maximize the potential of human resources within the
organization.
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Lickert System IV
▪ Likert’s System IV is a management theory developed by Rensis Likert, which
outlines four distinct management styles that represent different degrees of
participation by employees in organizational decision-making.
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(Cont’d)
▪ Likert argued that organizations could be classified into one of these four systems,
ranging from highly authoritarian to fully participative.
▪ The idea behind Likert's System IV is that the more participative an organization
is, the more effective it will be.
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QUIZ 2
(next week)
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