HUMAN RELATIONS SCHOOLS:Behavioural School, System Schools

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Introduction To Public AdministrationMGT111

LESSON 05

HUMAN RELATIONS SCHOOLS

Text Books

Khan, Sultan, Public Administration with Special Reference to Pakistan,

Urdu Bazar, Lahore (latest edition)

Nigro and Nigro, Modern Public Administration, Harper & Row, NY (latest edition)

At the end of the lecture the students will be able to understand the following:-

Main features of Human Relations Schools

The concept of behaviour and the common features of behavioural School and Human Relations

Theory X and Theory Y

Maslow hierarchy of need i.e. the concepts in need theory

Concepts and main features of System school

We will now conclude Hebert Simons work. But before we do that we attempt to see how Simon

classified administrative behaviour.

He has classified the administrative behaviour as follows:-

1. The study of bureaucracy: In order to understand decision making, it is better to understand the

structure of organization, because the structure determines behaviour.

2. Human relations pertaining to motivation and increasing job satisfaction: The study of human

relations and motivation determines the performance in organization.

3. Decision-making studies emphasizing cognitive processes and the rational components of

administrative behaviour: The decision making behaviour in organization is based on cognitive

process as well as rational

In his view, all behaviour involves conscious or unconscious selection of particular actions. For

example:

If a manager has to decide to fire Mr. X., the conscious considerations would be like the employee

was undisciplined, and continuously performed unsatisfactorily. His unconscious consideration might be

that the manager did not like his him personally.

Main Features of Human of Relation Approach

This is a brief snapshot of the human relations theories. The Human Relations School focused on

the:-

Individuals behaviour, cognitive decision-making process and nature of authority in organization

Informal, interpersonal relationship, group dynamics and communication pattern

Behavioural School

The Behavioural School looked at human motivation and social environment in which the

organizations work. They studied the behaviour of individuals in the organization and the affect of

behaviour on organizational performance. The main contributors to Behavioural School were Psychologists

and Sociologists.

What is behaviour?

Behaviour is defined in general sense as actions of people that are seen. As you can see in the figure

the behaviour that can be seen is really the tip of the ice being. Below this tip is the unseen attitudes,

thoughts, feelings, perception, motive etc. The unseen attitudes etc. drive certain behaviour which is seen.

Introduction To Public AdministrationMGT111

For example we can see the behaviour of a person who violates traffic signal or who litters around. From

this behaviour we can infer his perceptions and attitudes towards rules and cleanliness respectively.

Figure

Behaviour

Seen

Behaviour

Attitudes

Thoughts Motives

Feelings

Not Seen

The Human Relation School and Behavioural School have many things in common. These are:

Both focus on motivation of people

Both emphases Clarity of communication

They emphasize interpersonal relationship: How people relate with each other

Both look at individual and group behaviour: Behaviour of people in the group and individual

behaviour

Main Contributors of Behavioural

The main contributors whose work is analyzed are:-

1. Douglas McGregor

2. Abraham Maslow

Douglas McGregor:

Douglas McGregor presented a theory called Theory X and Theory Y. His Theory X and Y are the

negative and positive assumption about human behaviour.

Theory X

Theory X has negative assumptions, which are as follows:-

1. Dislike work: It is assumed that human beings are lazy and docile, therefore, they avoid work.

2. Avoid responsibility: Because human beings are lazy, they do not want to take any responsibility.

3. They need to be supervised: From the above two assumption it follow that they need to be

supervised. As human beings are lazy, therefore, in order to get work out of them they need to be

closely supervised.

Theory Y

Theory Y is a positive assumption about human behaviour, and its assumptions are just the

opposite of Theory X. These assumptions are:

1. People accept responsibility: Because they are willing to work and agile and active. They want to

achieve goals for the organization and accept responsibility.

2. Can exercise control: Because they are responsible, therefore, they want to have control over things

3. Have capacity to be creative: People want to be creative and look for challenge.

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4. Can work as natural as rest or play: For people work and rest are equal, i.e. people want to work

and rest which is natural they cannot rest all the time because it becomes boring and they cannot

work all the time because it becomes dull as well

Maslow's Need Hierarchy

This theory was developed by Abraham Maslow. This theory has received more attention from

managers. Maslow viewed human motivation as a hierarchy of five needs (see figure) ranging from the most

basic physiological or basic needs to the highest level of need for "self actualization". According to Maslow,

individuals will be motivated to fulfill the most pressing need at a time. The importance of need depends on

the deprivation of the need and current situation. If the individual is deprived of basic need he will be at

that level of need. For example the basic needs are food, clothing and shelter. If one is hungry and is

starving one will not be able to think of higher level of need i.e. safety. The needs at the lower level must be

satisfied before one moves to higher level of needs.

Figure

Self

Actualization

Ego-Status

Belongingness

Safety

Basic Needs

System Schools

The main contributors of system schools are:-

1. Fermont E. Kast

2. James E. Rosenzweig

3. William Scott

The word `system' is borrowed from biological sciences to social science. It attempts to see

organizations as other systems, like irrigation system, Ecosystem, circulatory system, digestive system, solar

system, etc.

Some of these are mechanistic system, some are organic system. The mechanistic system is static

e.g. these do not change with changes outside the system. Organic systems are not static. Organic System

responds to external environment.

There are two basic components of system Theory. These are:-

System School views organization as "unified, purposeful system composed of interrelated

parts"

This theory provides opportunity to look at organization as a whole and as part of larger external

environment

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Parts of Organization

An organization comprise of many parts or sub-system. The figure shows an organization structure

of a university. Three sub-system i.e. Examination, Registration and Human Resource management are

shown. These sub-systems or parts of organization constitute one big organization. Since organizations are

compared to organic system, these are changeable. The organization as a whole responds to external system.

Figure

Rector

Human Resource

Examination

Registration

Management

Key Concepts in System School

Following are some key concepts in System Theory:-

Subsystem: The part that make up the whole

Synergy: whole is greater than the sum of its part The combine effect of system

System boundary: Boundary separates system from the external environment

Open & closed system: system that interacts with its environment is open system

Feedback: return of information to the organization. The figure below shows the feed back

mechanism.

Figure

Inputs

Transformation

Products

Human

Use of processes to

Good and Services

Financial

change resources into

Physical

goods and services

Feedback

The theories or schools of thoughts that we have tried to understand explain us one aspect of

organization. Therefore, we cannot say that one theory is better than other. In fact all theories if studied are

helpful in explaining organizational behaviour, and explain us different aspects of organization.

The classical theories help us understand the mechanical aspects like line of command, unity of

direction hierarchy etc. While Human and Behavioural Schools help us understand the human side of

organizations.

Concepts

Theory X:

The negative assumptions about human behaviour

Theory Y:

The positive assumptions about human behaviour

Behaviour:

Actions of Individual that can be observed

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Need Hierarchy:

Human needs are placed in different levels, from the basic level

to the highest level.

Sub-System:

The part that make up the whole

Feed back:

Return of information to the organization

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