the iron cage and the rise of the self
TRANSCRIPT
MANAGEMENTLABOUR
Executes simple tasks
Plans work to be done by labourer
Measures performance
Trains labourer
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Chris Grey, A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying organisations. Pages 41-60.
Elton Mayo, The social problems of an industrial civilization. Pages 59 – 86. Download link on BlackBoard
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Board of directors
CEO
VP for function 2VP for function 1 VP for function 3
Staff for function 3Staff for function 2Staff for function 1
And add George F Johnson, Marching along together to culture slides. Pre DepressionEndecot Johnston boot WW2. Declines from global trade. Changing character of the corporation. Square deal meets pro sports.
So long as commerce specializes in business methods which take no account of human nature and social motives, so long may we expect strikes and sabotage to be the ordinary accompaniment of industry.
Elton Mayo
404 MANAGEMENT AND THE WORKER
necessity o£ installing costly ventilating equipment, the walls were not
extended to the ceiling but were left with about four feet of space at
the top. The room was equipped with standard workbenches taken
from the regular department. Ample space was left at the front of
the room for trucks of material to come in and out. At the rear of the
room, space was left for the observer's desk. Inasmuch as a position in
front of a group, especially if the occupant sits while the group stands,
may imply superordination of some sort, care was taken to have the
observer's desk in the rear. When he was seated, he faced toward a side
wall and could not look directly at the group without turning to one
side. It was believed that this arrangement would mitigate any feeling
the operators might have of being watched.
The work positions of the soldermen and the inspectors are not
shown in this diagram but their location can easily be determined by
referring to Table XXV. Each wireman's two work stations are in-
dicated as positions A and B.
The Composition of the Group
Some of the more important facts relating to the composition of the
group are shown in Table XXVI. With the exception of I3, all the
operators were within the age range of twenty to twenty-six years.
I3 was fourteen years older than anyone in the group. All of them had
TABLE XXVIComposition of the Group
BANK WIRING OBSERVATION ROOM
Marital Service
Operator Age Birthplace Nationality Status Education Yrs. Mos.
w, 22 U.S.A. Polish S 7 G.S. 3 2
w. 25 U.S.A. German s 2 H.S. 5 5
w. 26 U.S.A. American M 8 G.S. 2 5
w, 20 U.S.A. Irish s 2 H.S. 3 7
w. 24 U.S.A. Bohemian M 4 H.S. 2 8
w. 21 U.S.A. Polish S 2 H.S. 3 I
w, 22 U.S.A. Bohemian M 8 G.S. 3 2
w. 22 U.S.A. German S 4 H.S. 3 8
w. 21 U.S.A. American s 8 G.S. 2 10
s, 21 U.S.A. Cicrman s 8 G.S. 5 4
s. 26 Yugoslavia Bohemian s 6 G.S. 9 8
s. 20 U.S.A. Bohemian s 8 G.S. 3
I, 23 U.S.A. American s 4 H.S. 3
I. 40 Turkey Armenian M 7, Col. 7
THE OUTPUT SITUATION 421
S,: (To Ohs.) "What's a guy going to do If these fellows won't quit
work?"
Obs: "That's it, what?"
Si: "Keep right on working."
Obs: "There you are. Now you've got it."
Si: "W2 has got 8,000 and he don't know enough to quit. Well, if he
wires 8,000, I must solder 8,000. That's it, isn't it.?"
Obs: "Sure."
We and Wg were the first in output and it was toward them that
most of the group pressure was directed. Wq was designated by such
names as "Shrimp," "Runt," and "Slave." Sometimes he was called
"Speed King," a concession to his wiring ability. W2 was called "Phar
Lap," the name of a race horse. Wj was nicknamed "4:15 Special,"
meaning that he worked until quitting time. W5 was also called "Slave"
occasionally.
One of the most interesdng devices by which the group attempted
to control the behavior of individual members was a practice which
they called "hinging." This practice was noticed early in tJie study.
The observer described it as follows:
W7, Wg, W9, and S4 were engaging in a game which they called "hing-
ing." One of them walked up to another man and hit him as hard as he
could on the upper arm. The one hit made no protest, and it seems that
it was his privilege to "bing" the one who hit him. He was free to retaliate
with one blow. One of the objects of the game is to ^ee who can hit the
hardest. But it is also used as a penalty. If one of them says something that
another dislikes, the latter may walk up and say, "I'm going to bing you for
that." The one who is getting hinged may complain that he has been hurt
and say, "That one was too hard. I'm going to get you for that one."
In the following incident hinging was being used as a simple penalty:
W9 suddenly bingcd W7.
Obs: (To W9) "Why did you do that?"
Wg: "He swore. We got an agreement so that the one who swears gets
bingcd. Wg was in it for five minutes, but he got hinged a couple
of times and then quit."
Obs: "Why don't you want W7 to swear?"
Wg: "It's just a bad habit. There's no sense to it, and it doesn't soundgood. I've been getting the habit lately and sometimes I swear
Management and the worker, 1938, p. 421.
Management and the worker, 1938, p. 422.
422 MANAGEMENT AND THE WORKERwhen I don't want to. I never used to swear until I got next to
Wg, there, and now I find myself doing it all the time."
Another time hinging was advocated as a means of expressing a
mutual antagonism and settUng a dispute:
W7 had his window open. Wg walked over and opened his window
wide. W9 went over and closed W^'s window. Wq ran over and grabbed
the chain. He insisted that the window stay open. W9 insisted that it was
too drafty.
Wg: "You run your own window, I'll take care of this one."
Wg: "It's too drafty. You leave that window closed or I'll bing you."
Wg: "Go ahead, start."
W9 glanced up to see if he could take the chain off the top of the window.
We held the chain tight so that W9 couldn't loosen it. They had quite an
argument.
We: (To Wg) "How about it? Is it too drafty over there?"
Ws: *'No, it's all right."
Wg: "There you are. Now leave the window alone."
S^: (To Wg) "What's the idea of lying?"
Ws: "I'm not."
S^: "You're lying if you say you don't feel the draft."
Wg did not answer.
W7: (Tired of the argument) "Why don't you bing each other and then
shut up?"
In addition to its use as a penalty and as a means of settling disputes,
hinging was used to regulate the output of some of the faster workers.
This was one of its most significant appUcations and is well illustrated
in the following entry:
Wg: (To We) "Why don't you quit work? Let's see, this is your thirty-
fifth row today. What are you going to do with them all?"
We: "What do you care? It's to your advantage if I work, isn't it?"
Wg: "Yeah, but the way you're working you'll get stuck with them."
Wg: "Don't worry about that. I'll take care of it. You're getting paid by
the sets I turn out. That's all you should worry about."
Wg: "If you don't quit work I'll bing you." Wg struck We and finally
chased him around the room.
Employees made “informal relationships of interconnectedness”
“Whenever and where it was possible [employees] generated them like crazy. In many cases they found them so satisfying that they often did all sorts of nonlogical things…in order to belong.”
Roethlisberger, The Elusive Phenomena, 1977, p. 238, 165
1. Max Weber’s idea of bureaucracy : objective, efficient, but an iron cage 2. The self: irrational motives
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1. Max Weber’s idea of bureaucracy : objective, efficient, but an iron cage 2. The self: irrational motives 3. Management deals not with drones but real people
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