human problems of an industrial civilization.
Contributors: F. J. Roethlisberger
Edition: Compass Books ed.
Publisher: Viking Press
Published: 1960
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Subjects: Business
Genres: Economics; Sociology
First sentence: CHAPTER I
Fatigue
The human aspect of industry has changed very considerably in the last fifty years. The nature and range of these changes are still partly unknown to us, but the question of their significance is no longer in dispute. Whereas the human problems of industry were regarded until recently as lying within the strict province of the specialist, it is now beginning to be realized that a clear statement of such problems in particular situations is necessary to the effective thinking of every business administrator and every economic expert. In the nineteenth century there was an ill-founded hope that some species of political remedy for industrial ills might be discovered; this hope has passed. There have been very considerable political changes, both generally and also in particular national systems, since the end of the war in 1918. But the human problems of industrial organization remain identical for Moscow, London, Rome, Paris, and New York. As ever in human affairs, we are struggling against our own ignorance and not against the machinations of a political adversary.
The belief that we need to know far more of the human aspect and human effect of industry is quite recent; it is indeed a development of the postwar years. In 1893, in England, Sir William Mather of the firm of Mather & Platt, Manchester, tried the experiment of reducing the weekly hours of work from fifty-four to forty-eight. "Two years' experience proved that the change had brought about a considerable increase in production and...
Description: The complexities of human relationships in industry and society, of which Elton Mayo treats in this classic volume, cannot be solved by any sovereign remedy, but can be far better understood in the light of this study. The questions raised by Mayo have gained in importance since this book first appeared in 1933. In summarizing what Mayo has to say to the reader of the 1960s, F. J. Roethlisberger, in his introduction to this Compass volume, addresses queries as follows:
To the ideologically inclined: Are you as concerned with the development of society's leaders as with society's masses? To the scientifically inclined: Are you as concerned with the growth ideas of the scientific enterprise as with its products? To the political leader: Are you as concerned with the social development of your people as with raising their standards of living?
Similar questions are asked of leaders of unions and management, business educators and students, the action-oriented, and of the individual himself. The result to the thoughtful reader should be a valuable new self-assessment, whatever his status in our contemporary industrial civilization.
Notes: Originally published 1933. Introduction by F. J. Roethlisberger
"Mr. Mayo has read and observed widely and thought much upon the matters he discusses and he has a questioning, courageous mind that is not content with assumptions, but asks for proved values."
—THE NEW YORK TIMES
Table of contents: pagenum: vii
class: section
title: Introduction by F. J. Roethlisberger; pagenum: 1
title: Fatigue
label: I; pagenum: 27
title: What Is Monotony?
label: II; pagenum: 53
title: The Hawthorne Experiment
label: III; pagenum: 74
label: IV
title: Development of the Western Electric Inquiry; pagenum: 95
title: The Meaning of "Morale"
label: V; pagenum: 117
title: The Reaction of Industry upon the Social Order
label: VI; pagenum: 138
label: VII
title: Theories of Government and the Social Order; pagenum: 161
label: VIII
title: The Problem of the Administrator; pagenum: 183
title: Index to Authors; pagenum: 184
title: Index to Topics