Industrial psychology and scocialogy Free Essay Example

A man called Eric Berne, who, not directly inspired or referring to the Hawthorne effect, did show that people’s morale is influenced to a great degree by the conversations they have. He called this Transactional Analysis, whereby he primarily concentrated on people’s actions rather than their psychological proccesses. This has been adapted in many businesses to try and get the best out of the workers by trying to bring out the emotional states best suited to the job the worker needs to do.

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Berne said that verbal communication; particularly face-to-face is the centre of human social relationships. What this means from a business point of view is that managers need to be aware, not only of how they talk to the workers but how their body behaves when talking to workers. This is because conciously or unconciously the worker will pick up on this and may become motivated or demotivated by these actions. Mayo’s findings were revolutionary and brought about enormous consequences, not just to businesses but he opened up the field of industrial psychology and scocialogy.

The effect it did have on businesses was huge; personnel departments became widespread across the UK and US as managers tried to achive the Hawthorne effect to boost productivity. The man who took the theory that ‘there was more to motivation than money’ further was Abraham Maslow. Maslow not only identified that there was more to motivation than money but he also put these motivational needs in a heirarchy. The heirarchy is demonstrated in the pyramid above.

To fully understand the heriarchial structure an explanation of each is needed.

Physiological needs: food, shelter, clothing etc. For most people their efforts will be consumed by filling this need. Safety/Security: The need for self-preservation, often translates in business terms as job security or the assurance that one will continue to be able to meet one’s physiological needs. Social (Belonging): The need for family and relationships, feeling part of a group. Esteem: Self-esteem that comes from confidence in mastering a skill, esteem and recognition from others. Self-actualisation: ‘to become everything that one is capable of becoming’

Maslow’s work influenced many people such as the theorists that followed him (Herzberg and McGregor) and also influenced people in subjects beyond business such as psychology and sociology. The significant thing about Maslow’s work was that he organised and identified which ones were higher needs than the others. The person to take the theories of more than one motivational factor to the best analytic usefullness is Herzbeg. He concentrates on one of the most underestimatedly important factors of motivation- Job satisfaction, which Maslow, Taylor and Mayo don’t even touch upon.

Job satifsaction is important because if someone is not satisfied at his or her job, no matter what differs you from everyone else, you will not work to your full potential. Herzberg asked employees what made them feel good about their job and what they didn’t like about the job. Herzberg identified 5 factors he named ‘the motivators’ which stood out as being strong detrminers of job satisfaction. These were revolutionary because they were concerned with the job rather than issues such as pay or status.

Herzberg also identified 5 factors, which gave rise to exceptionally bad feelings about their jobs. This again was concentrated on the job itself and the 5 factors were named ‘hygiene factors’ and concluded that these factors ‘surround the job’ rather than the job itself. Fulfilment of these factors would cause a loss of dissatisfaction rather than causing positive motivation. A cross between these two factors is known as the 2-factor theory, whereby something such as pay would be a grevience if there was not enough of it, but then it would be taken for granted if there was a sufficient boost.

Herzberg’s other theories and insights are things such as distinguishing between movement and motivation. He says the difference is movement is where the workers do something and motivation is where they do something because they want to do it. Herzberg agrees that money can be used to boost productivity but would not stimulate people to work their best. This theory is the epitomy of Herzberg’s take on motivating workers; he knew that it was unrealistic to think that more money makes a boring job satisfying.

He knew that workers expect things when they are always given it; this is not to say he thought workers were lazy or greedy, but he knew human nature and how it worked. Herzberg was a very analytic and realistic man you can see this from his quotes and from his work, he didn’t expect workers to give their all just because they are getting more money. He didn’t mean this in a disrespectful or belittling way to the worker, but if one thinks about it, one realises it is true.