Mayo, Elton, 1880-1949

Biography

Elton Mayo, son of George and Hetty Mary (Donaldson) Mayo, was born in Adelaide, Australia on December 26, 1880. Mayo’s family encouraged him to become a physician, but his attempts to study medicine at the University of Adelaide and at St. George's Hospital in London proved to be desultory. He read extensively in psychology and abandoned the study of medicine in 1903. In 1904 he taught briefly at the Working Men's College in London and from 1905-1910 he worked for a printing firm in Adelaide. In 1911 he received a B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of Adelaide. He was a lecturer at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia from 1911 to 1918, and was Professor of Psychology at the same school from 1918 to 1922. Between 1914 and 1922 he conducted psycho-pathological research on World War I shell shock patients in Australia. While in Australia he developed the view that psychological research would reveal the mental disorders that were an underlying cause of industrial unrest. His ideas were similar to those being concurrently promoted in the United States by psychiatrist E.E. Southard.

When Elton Mayo moved to the United States in 1923 he found a climate receptive to the type of industrial research he was interested in doing. He became a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Commerce and Finance where he at the studied the interplay of physical and psychological factors in employee turnover at Continental Mills. In 1926 he moved to Harvard Business School to become Head of the new Department of Industrial Research. He was Associate Professor at Harvard Business School from 1926-1929, Professor from 1929-1947, and Professor Emeritus from 1947-1949. The Rockefeller Foundation’s Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund supported much of his research at Harvard Business School.

Between 1928 and 1933 Mayo was closely associated with the Hawthorne Study, an industrial research project conducted at the Western Electric Company's plant in Hawthorne, Illinois. Phase One of the study involved careful test room observations of employees who were subjected to variations in their working conditions for the purpose of learning how change affected productivity. Phase Two of the study produced confidential interviews with 20,000 workers. Mayo later studied workers at other plants and became the principal exponent of the human relations school of management theory. This approach to management, which commanded a great deal of attention in the 1930s and which became very influential, focused on the feelings of individuals working in organizations, and argued that management theory should be concerned primarily with interpersonal relations. Integration of individuals and of informal groups of workers into the larger working environment was a paramount goal. The movement suggested that an organization that recognized human needs and listened to ideas and complaints from its employees would see an increase in productivity and morale. Among the many researchers who were heavily influenced by Mayo were William Dickson, George Homans, George Lombard, Fritz Roethlisberger and Jerome Scott.

Elton Mayo practiced psychotherapy on many patients and attempted to apply psychological insights to his work in industrial research. He published many articles and several books regarding human factors in industry.

Mayo married Dorothea McConnell on April 18, 1913; the couple had two daughters. He died in Guilford, England on December 9, 1949.

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