Social problems of an industrial civilizaiton

THIS is the second in a series of books by Professor Elton Mayo, now planned to be three in number. Jointly they will present selected aspects of over a quarter-century of clinical research in industry. This research has been carried on in an effort to get a better and more fundamental understanding of human relations that most neglected of subjects-and how to improve them. These books present also Mayo's mature reflections based on long self training and clinical experience with individuals in a great variety of social environments before he began the study of men and women in industry. As a result of his earlier work, when he turned his attention to industry he brought to his studies, ". first, intimate, habitual, intuitive familiarity with things; secondly, systematic knowledge of things; and thirdly, a useful way of thinking about things", which the late Lawrence J. Henderson considered the basic necessities for objective clinical study of a new field.

For about twenty years Mayo has been senior professor in the Department of Industrial Research in the Harvard Business School. The research conducted by this Department, by him and his co-workers in industry and in the School, has always been first-hand, clinical studies of concrete industrial situations. The history of this twenty-year programme has been a history of steadily increasing insight.

In his first comprehensive report on this industrial research, The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, published in 1933 (reprinted in 1946), Mayo broke new ground in methods of study ing and securing better understanding of individual workers in relation to their industrial jobs and of ways to improve their sense of well-being on the job. This report was followed by more detailed accounts of a five-year experiment conducted at and by the Western Electric Company, with the advice and collaboration of Mayo and his associates.