Elton Mayo
Australian-born philosopher and industrial researcher at Harvard Business School
Australian-born academic who trained in philosophy and psychology and taught philosophy before moving to the United States. At Harvard Business School he promoted a human relations view of work, based partly on the Hawthorne studies, which later scholars criticised.
Why this person matters
His work on the Hawthorne studies helped shape the human relations movement in management. Harvard's archive credits Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger with leading the studies, and accounts of the fieldwork name Roethlisberger and William Dickson of Western Electric as doing much of the practical research. Later analyses weakened the evidence for some conclusions drawn from them.
Main contributions
Philosophy teaching and shell-shock treatment
He became foundation lecturer in mental and moral philosophy at the University of Queensland in 1911 and held its first philosophy chair from 1919 to 1923. With the physician T. H. Mathewson he worked on psychoanalytic treatment of shell-shock, which the Australian Dictionary of Biography calls pioneering.
Industrial research in the United States
After leaving Australia in 1922 he held a Rockefeller-funded post at the Wharton School and studied high labour turnover at a Philadelphia textile mill. Turnover fell after rest breaks were introduced, and Mayo attributed the change to the breaks; later Hawthorne work called that conclusion into question. He became professor of industrial research at Harvard in 1929.
Hawthorne studies and human relations
Harvard Business School's archive says Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger led the Western Electric studies at the Hawthorne Works, which ran from 1924 to 1933. EBSCO says Mayo joined in 1928, about four years after they began. He published The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization in 1933.
Context and limits
In the illumination experiments (1924 to 1927) productivity rose in both the test and control rooms, and researchers concluded that lighting was not the cause. Parsons (1974) argued the studies were too confounded for firm conclusions; Braverman (1974) read them as showing a workplace of power and class antagonism. Levitt and List (2011) found only slight evidence of an effect in recovered illumination data. Bendix and Fisher said Mayo generalised from small groups, Bell criticised social scientists such as Mayo for adjusting people to machines, and Hoopes said he substituted therapy for democracy. Sources disagree on whether to call him a psychologist.
In your introductory course
Applied psychology, work and education.Mayo appears in the industrial and organisational psychology material as the figure linked to the Hawthorne studies and the human relations movement. The Hawthorne effect is taught alongside the caution that its evidence is disputed.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 13.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1911
Became foundation lecturer in mental and moral philosophy at the University of Queensland.
- 1926
Became associate professor at the Harvard School of Business Administration.
- 1928
Joined the Hawthorne studies at Western Electric, about four years after they began.
- 1933
Published The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization.
Sources
- Australian Dictionary of Biography, Mayo, George Elton (1880 to 1949)Reference work. Reference article inspected.
- Harvard Business School Baker Library Historical Collections, The Hawthorne Studies Collection: IntroductionArchive or museum. Institutional biography inspected.
- EBSCO Research Starters, George Elton MayoReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Elton MayoReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Hawthorne effectReference work. Reference article inspected.