Human Relations in the Workplace: Insights & Analysis

Posted on Mar 13, 2025 in Business Administration and Management (BAM)

Interviews with Workers

Objective

To learn more about employees, listen to their opinions and suggestions.

Methodology

Interviews were conducted with a questionnaire administered to workers in various sectors of the assembly line. Subsequently, they were allowed to speak freely.

Results

  • A latent organization was formed by informal and natural groups.
  • Production levels were controlled by informal groups, penalizing those who exceeded them.
  • Workers were dissatisfied with the system of material incentives.
  • The reaction of workers to superiors’ suggestions was unpredictable.
  • Many of these reactions stemmed from problems unrelated to work, but most resulted from Taylorist production conditions.

Impact of Informal Organizations on Efficiency

  • Strengthening of relations between workers.
  • Increase in conflict, tension, and dissatisfaction with the company.

Analysis of Informal Groups

Objective

To analyze the informal organization of workers.

Experiment

An observer was infiltrated in all work processes. Their goal was to pose as a normal worker and observe the effects of human relations on production efficiency.

Results

  • Workers achieved normal production but reduced their work rate, compensating on low-production days.
  • Those who did not comply were penalized.

Conclusion

  • The researcher reported on the relationship between the formal and informal organization, highlighting the influence of primary groups on workers’ effort and commitment.
  • The pace of work was managed by the group, influenced by incentive payments.
  • Codes of practice existed within the group.

Conclusions

  • Informal groups constitute the human organization of the company and may contrast with the formal structure, a factor management must consider.
  • Understanding human relationships allows administrators to achieve better results from their subordinates.
  • Extreme division of labor negatively affects worker attitudes and the group.
  • Work is a group activity.
  • Group implication, security, and a sense of belonging are more important for increased productivity than physical conditions.
  • Complaints about work are not always objective; most are subjective and related to workers’ perceptions of working conditions.
  • Efficiency and worker attitudes are conditioned by internal and external social aspects.
  • Informal groups significantly influence workers’ work habits and attitudes.
  • The extreme division of labor, as advocated by classical theories, did not benefit long-term productivity.

Polanyi’s Critique of Liberal Economic Theory

Main Assumptions

Polanyi critiques liberal economic theory, especially two core assumptions:

  1. The assumption that the market is a uniquely “natural” form of economic organization of society.
  2. The assumption that human economic behavior is naturally and inevitably motivated by the goal of maximizing profits.

The Industrial Revolution enabled this new ideology. The mechanization of labor changed the context in which policymakers and laypeople make choices. While greater productivity becomes possible, the transition is not smooth. This transformation paves the way for the commodification of land, labor, and money: the three “fictitious commodities.”