Maslow, Mayo, and McGregor Essay

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Abraham Maslow, Elton Mayo, Douglas McGregor, and Chester Barnard are four theorists of numerous that assisted in building upon the formation of what is known as modern organizational theory. Modern organizational theory places emphasis on the examination of organizational behavior, use of varied methods, interdisciplinary research, as well as tries to reach generalizations applicable towards various types of organizations. Such a theory differs from other schools of thought like neoclassical and classical. Modern organizational theorists often attempt to minimize the influence of their views, beliefs, and values. Instead of the common assumption that management systems are apolitical, actual effort is put on separating values from evidence or facts. Therefore, the modern school of thought is therefore the most applicable for pubic and/or nonprofit organizations. This essay will explain why and the contributions of the aforementioned theorists.

Elton Mayo discovered during his journey in understanding the ‘human side of enterprise’ that many people like working in groups. This is what he detailed as the power of natural groups (Stoyanov & Diderich, 2017). Essentially, certain social aspects have a higher priority than functional organizational structures. Mayo also highlighted the need for reciprocal communication, meaning two-way communication (Stoyanov & Diderich, 2017).

This is a very important aspect to highlight because thanks to Mayo’s work one can understand the need for communication in an organization. Businesses rely on communication to create and maintain success and therefore profits. If communication only exists top down from chief executive to work and does not include vice versa, there can be decreased job satisfaction and diminished loyalty on the part of the worker. This is later touched on by one of the other theorists. Finally, Mayo stated the creation of high quality leadership is needed to improve that ever-important communication aspect, by defining goals, ensuing coherent and effective decision-making (Stoyanov & Diderich, 2017).

Without these fundamentals, one cannot understand the structure of an organization from an interpersonal perspective. Classic schools of thought on organization management and behavior often believe in a top-down perspective. However, modern thinking introduces the notion of giving a voice to the worker. This can be beneficial to an organization in several ways. But the two most important is creating job satisfaction for the worker and creating loyalty therefore, promoting a more effective means of goal achieving throughout the organization.

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Abraham Maslow introduced Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in his essay, “A Theory of Human Motivation”. These needs are positioned in a pyramid with the lowest being physiological needs, then safety needs, social belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, followed by self-transcendence (Maslow, 2013). Although these needs are not necessarily to be met in that order, it makes sense for physiological to be at the bottom because good health is what is needed to have the energy and motivation to do anything related to job performance. When Maslow created this pyramid, he had in mind the basic needs of people and meeting these needs to allow for cultivation of the self and identity, which can lend to the more advanced processes needed within a successful organization.

His work is important because it allows for an understanding of what may motivate people to behave a certain way. For example, if workers within an organization are placed in a team setting, some may behave a certain way due to the need for social belonging. While others are more interested in self-actualization and therefore behave accordingly. Understanding motivation plays a key role in management of organizations and companies because it allows for an assessment of what fuels specific behaviors.

This kind of thinking is crucial in discovering how to effectively implement goals within any organization or business. This makes communication easier and removes a lot of the perceived obstacles because it permits analysis and assessment of motivators and ways to ensure communication and compliance in workers. Maslow and Mayo’s work although not universally agreed upon, are major contributions to understanding the human aspect of enterprise. Because, the human aspect is often complex and requires constant assessment and examination.

The next theorist, Chester Barnard, who contributed to organization theory at a time when it was too abstract and mechanistic. “The early subtleties of F. W. Taylor’s scientific management had mainly given way to a ‘machine model,’ while the abstract principles of administration advanced by Henri Fayol and others failed to engage the issues….....

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