THE WORK OF ELTON MAYO

THE WORK OF ELTON MAYO: Mayo began his western electric company's research with the introduction of rest periods which amounted to two ten minute breaks in the morning and two in the afternoon. The workers were encouraged to sleep for these periods, which initially were made available to only one-third of the men in the department. The results were impressive as labour turnover decreased and output went up. Morale equally improved and the end of the first month, production efficiency had reached nearly 80% (percent) and the workers received their first bonus. Within four months the level of production was 82%(percent).


 At this point, certain difficulties began to arise. The supervisors of the department had never liked the new system. They believed that the rest pauses should be earned (i.e that the men should be expected to complete certain jobs before being authorized to rest) and, when a special rush order was received, they abandoned the rest pauses completely. Within five days, conditions were back to what they had been when the experiment started, production was the lowest for months, absenteeism went up and morals went down. The supervisors were not upset though,and they brought back the rest period once more, but strictly on an earned basis. Again the workers failed to respond and production was back at 70 percent.


 At this moment, the president of the company, in consultation with mayo took charge. He ordered that during the rest pauses the machines should be shut down so that everyone in the department would be compelled to rest whether he has workers or supervisor. Once more absenteeism diminished and morale went up., and production increased by 77.5 percent. Subsequent changes permitted the men to select their own rest pauses which alternated with each other, so that he machines could be kept running continously. This was the final phase of the experiment. Production reached 86.5 percent and labour turnover had never since exceed 5-6 percent.


In explaining the results later, mayo pointed out that, firstly, the mere fact of the research being carried out demonstrated to the workers that their problems were not being ignored. That secondly, the president of the company had always been popular with his employees and was never more so than when he took the side of the workers against the supervisor who had put a stop to the rest pauses. Finally, a crowd of solitary workers had been transformed into a group with a sense of social responsibility when they had themselves been given control over their rest periods.