Elton Mayo Quotes

George Elton Mayo was an Australian born psychologist, industrial researcher, and organizational theorist. Mayo was formally trained at the University of Adelaide, acquiring a Bachelor of Arts Degree graduating with First Class Honours, majoring in philosophy and psychology, and was later awarded an honorary Master of Arts Degree from the University of Queensland .

While in Queensland, Mayo served on the University's war committee and pioneered research into the psychoanalytic treatment of shell-shock. As a psychologist Mayo often helped soldiers returning from World War I recover from the stresses of war and with a Brisbane physician, pioneered the psychoanalytic treatment of shell-shock and conducted psycho-pathological tests. He was a lecturer in psychology and mental philosophy at the UQ between 1911 and 1922, when he sailed to the United States. In 1926 he was appointed to the Harvard Business School as a professor of industrial research.In Philadelphia he conducted research at a textile plant in order to develop a method to reduce the very high rate of turnover in the plant. Mayo's association with the Hawthorne studies as well as his research and work in Australia led to his enjoying a public acclaim granted to few social scientists of his day.

Mayo has been credited with making significant contributions to a number of disciplines, including business management, industrial sociology, philosophy, and social psychology. His field research in industry had a significant impact on industrial and organizational psychology. According to Trahair, Mayo "is known for having established the scientific study of what today is called organizational behavior when he gave close attention to the human, social, and political problems of industrial civilization." .Mayo's work helped to lay the foundation for the human relations movement. He emphasized that alongside the formal organization of an industrial workplace there exists an informal organizational structure as well. Mayo recognized the "inadequacies of existing scientific management approaches" to industrial organizations, and underlined the importance of relationships among people who work for such organizations. His ideas on group relations were advanced in his 1933 book The Human Problems of an Industrialized Civilization, which was based partly on his Hawthorne research. Wikipedia  

✵ 26. December 1880 – 7. September 1949
Elton Mayo photo
Elton Mayo: 18   quotes 6   likes

Famous Elton Mayo Quotes

“The problem is not that of the sickness of an acquisitive society; it is that of the acquisitiveness of a sick society.”

Source: The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilisation, (1933), p. 147

“Defeat takes the form of ultimate disillusion — a disgust with the "futility of endless pursuit."”

Source: The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilisation, (1933), p. 125

“The recent growth of interest in political matters in Australia is by no means a sign of social health.”

Source: Democracy and freedom. 1919, p. 43; Cited in: John Cunningham Wood, Michael C. Wood (eds). George Elton Mayo: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management, Volume 1. 2004, p. 78

“One friend, one person who is truly understanding, who takes the trouble to listen to us as we consider our problem, can change our whole outlook on the world.”

Elton Mayo, cited in: Edward William Bok (1947), Ladies' Home Journal.Vol. 64, p. 246

Elton Mayo Quotes about change

Elton Mayo Quotes

“If our social skills (that is, our ability to secure co-operation between people) had advanced step by step with our technical skills, there would not have been another European War.”

Source: The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilisation, 1945, p. 30 (in 2014 edition); Cited in: Urwick & Brech (1949, 215)

“What social and industrial research has not sufficiently realised as yet is that… minor irrationalities of the “average normal” person are cumulative in their effect. They may not cause “breakdown” in the individual but they do cause “breakdown” in the industry.”

Elton Mayo, “Irrationalty and Revery”, Journal of Personnel Research, March 1933, p.482; Cited in: Ionescu, G.G., & A.L. Negrusa. "Elton Mayo, an Enthusiastical Managerial Philosopher." Revista de Management Comparat International 14.5 (2013): 671.

“Acting in collaboration with the National Research Council, the Western Electric Company had for three years been engaged upon an attempt to assess the effect of illumination upon the worker and his work.”

Source: The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilisation, (1933), p. 55, chapter 3: The Hawthorne experiment Western Electric Company

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