The Role of Human Relations Approach in Contemporary Management

This essay provides an overview of the Human Relations Approach in management, analyzing its various aspects and significance within organizations. It begins by introducing the concept of management and the importance of human relations, contrasting it with earlier management theories by Frederick Taylor, Max Weber, and Henry Fayol. The essay then discusses the application of human relations approaches, emphasizing belongingness, recognition, group dynamics, and communication, using examples from companies like Wesfarmers, BHP, and Fortescue Metal Group (FMG). It further explores the influence of human relations on management, particularly in enhancing trust, productivity, and employee motivation, referencing Mayo's Hawthorne theory and its application in BHP. The essay also examines the relationship between the human relations approach and sustainability management, as well as its role in navigating the new normal business environment, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It concludes by reiterating the importance of the human relations approach in improving organizational performance through employee recognition, appreciation, and fulfillment of needs, highlighting the integration of past and present theories for effective management.

Introduction to
Management

Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Application of Human relations approaches...............................................................................4
Influence of Human relation on the Management.......................................................................5
Human relation approach and its relation with the sustainability management and other aspects
......................................................................................................................................................6
Human relation approach and New Normal business environment.............................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

Introduction
This study is on Human Relations Approach that is being used in organization. In the
study, different aspects of the human relation approach has been analysed. That shows that the
communication, socialization, team work and good relation between the employees are important
for the management and the company's performance.
Management plays an important role in running the organization. It is a major aspect of
successful organization. Managing any organization means that the tasks are being completed on
time and the organization is meeting their goals. The management is a set of activities that is
targeted to achieve the goals of the organization.
Human relations approaches mainly focus on the needs of the employees also their
behaviours. An approach refers to a way of dealing with the issue and problems in the
organization. There are several human relations approaches that had been emerged after 1920.
Frederick Weber and Fayol gave theories that were focused on the management more than the
human relations within the organization.
Frederick Winslow Taylor is known a father of scientific management. He used science
to find the most efficient and effective manner to complete the task. It does not focuses on the
employee's task. In the application of this theory, it only focuses on the task only. It has become
popular in the starting of 20th century. The basic need of the today's business is productivity. So it
can be a great addition to achieve the highest level of excellence.
Max Weber is inventor of Sociology. He gave a theory in 1947. He had reinforced the
principle of ideal bureaucracy. This theory provides rules for the decisions of management. The
characteristics identified by Weber are specialization of task, a well defined management
structure, formal rules, achievement based advancements and clearly defined tasks.
Henry Fayol gave 14 principles of management. This explains the responsibility of the
managers. It focus on the administrative aspects (Ishii and Kawahata, 2020). These principles
includes team work and focuses on the need of plans, commanding and coordinating in the
organization.
Barnad and Follett gave theories that were alongside of the human relations:

Chester Barnad , he gave a theory in 1931. that focused on the aspects where the
employees can disobey the orders and focused on the human relations. It mainly focuses on the
concept that says contribution, satisfaction and equilibrium to explain the employee's motivation.
In the initial years of the 20th century Elton Mayo and his colleagues gave a theory that
promotes the social relations within the organization. Also explained that managers can increase
the productivity of their employees by treating them as unique individual in spite of treating
them as machines.
Application of Human relations approaches
Human relations approach is being used by the organizations for better outcomes. The
approach is based on the needs, belongingness, recognitions, morales of the employees and team
efforts (Omodan, Tsotetsi and Bekithemba., 2021). The human relation approach is being used to
motivate the employees by fulfilling their psychological and social needs. There are few
companies that are in the market from past many years that are using these approaches to
motivate their employees and enhance their productivity. Belongingness and recognitions: The human relations approach can be applied through
inclusiveness of the employees and the stakeholder in the organization (Cafferkey and
et.al., 2019). For example, The Wesfarmer gives their workers the right of participation.
Wesfarmers is an organization that includes their employees in the decision-making for
their projects also in the betterment of the organization. Hence the managers,
administration and the employees are in process to decide the appropriate actions for the
the company. Group and Social groups in the Organization: The encouragement of the group activities
and the relationship between the groups likewise team bondings, this helps the managers
to understand the behaviours of the individual and group in terms of productivity
(Weatherburn, 2020). Also it helps to lessen the conflict between the staff member within
the company. For example, The BHP is an organization that works in mining where team
work is important aspect. So they use this approach to get their work done as well as to
socially motivate their workers.
 Communication and it's influence: Communication plays a central role in employee's
productivity, satisfaction and behaviour. For example, The Fortescue Metal Group

(FMG) understands that the communication channel between the hierarchy of the
company is essential part. That is why the managers in the FMG keeps interacting with
their employees and it emphasises on a great information sharing between them. Also the
involvement of the employees in the decision-making and a great intergroup co-
ordination takes place.
Influence of Human relation on the Management
For attaining the goals of the organization human relations approach plays a vital role.
Every organization has to maintain the human relationship in the best way possible to sustain in
the market for the longer time (Yakubu, 2018). BHP, is an organization in Australia that deals
with the extraction and process of mineral, oils and gases (About Us, 2021.). BHP knows the
importance of human relation approach and tries to be consistent with this within the company. It
is very clear from the observation that is has many advantages of human relations. It influences
the trust between the staff members and the organization. Better human relations ensures better
management and increased productivity. The management of the BHP ensure the effective
implementation of various human resource programs to increase the quality of the work and by
this the performance of the organization.
The results of Mayo's Hawthorne theory is also applied by the BHP for maintaining the
human relation. The Mayo's theory has the most important factor that is productivity and as
secondary impact increased motivation and better management (Warner and Busse, 2017). It has
increased the productivity due to influence of the support groups and the relationships between
them. Also this showed huge impact on the overall work output of the BHP (Broken Hill
property) company.
Human relation approach was applied within the BHP Pvt. ltd. and it suggested that the
basic need of the employees are physiological, self-esteem, self actualization, love and safety.
These are the basic need of the employees. When the management works on fulfilling these
needs of the employees, they are able to manage the staff in better ways (Peek, 2021). Also it
helps the management to deal with the external factors that are affecting the organization. When
the another aspect had focuses on motivational beliefs and the worker's contribution. They found
the increased, effective and efficient outcomes in the BHP and also it is found that the overall
performance of the company has increased.

Human relation approach and its relation with the sustainability management and other aspects
Human relation approach is having a direct relation with the sustainability management.
This is because as per this approach there is a direct relation of human behaviour and its
motivation with the external environment (Lee and Hu, 2018). As sustainability management is
related with the focus towards the aspect of make benefits in consideration with three aspect
including focus towards the meeting of need or present with a consideration towards future.
Likewise, economic and environment factor also need to be considered. And with regard to
human relation BHP would be easy to make a fulfilment of all the three aspects because if the
human relation in terms of co-ordination and co-operation towards each other than it will
automatically lead the BHP to fulfil all the aspect of sustainability management.
Likewise, it is also to be noted that along with meeting sustainability management,
human relation also benefit the BHP with regard to its products, services, process along with
meeting the needs of its stakeholders. This is because with the effective human relation
approach, all these aspects of the BHP would be meet in terms of making efficient production of
its products along with ensuring efficiency in its process. Similarly, human relation also benefits
the stakeholders including owners, shareholders, investors along with customers. This is because
with the effective application of this approach in the management of BHP, the terms of operation
of business would be improved which will further assist the business to move in the direction of
success. This would lead to have creation of benefits with respect to these aspects. Since human
capital is the base that would lead to make actual operation of plans and operation of the
company which would further lead to put a direct impact over the company in terms of grabbing
of profits and assistance towards the success of business. And if there is an existence of good
human relation among human capital then it will raise the percentage of success.
Human relation approach and New Normal business environment
Human relation approach is having a direct and major part with regard to the new
business environment. This is because with the changing business situation and environment
coping would be possible if there would be an existence of good human relation. As the BHP is
making co-operation with the changing business situation of covid pandemic and here an
existence of good human relation would play a success factor (Chatterjee and et.al., 2020). For
example with the pandemic situation mode of operation of BHP need to get changed including

an involvement of digital exposure and this will be possible only if there would be good human
relation.
However, on a contrary note finance plays a more important role with the coping of
changing situation rather than human relation. This means that with the implication of adequate
finance and funds changes will be coped, for example installation of new machinery or the
technology in business operation need finance first rather than human capital.
As human relation is having a direct association with the human capital so with the
implication of this approach, changing environment or making cope with the covid situation
would become easy to incorporate (Leach and et.al., 2021). For example with the outburst of
covid pandemic various activities related with mining in BHP with an association to human
capital is being affected. But with the implication of human relation approach this situation
would be easily resolved because of the existence and persistence of co-operation..
On a critical note it is also to be noted that human relation approach is also having an
adverse impact in terms of raising of sociality and swayed by personal emotion of risk workers
along with its impact on work performance and operations (Guest, 2017). This would lead to
create a severe and adverse impact towards the employees of BHP. For example non-focussing
towards risk work of mining by employees of BHP.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it can be said that the human relation approach of management is very
important for running the organizations. Analysis of many theories has been taken out likewise
Maslow's, Mayo's, Fayol's and Barnad's. All theories are developed at different times and with
the same objective behind it. The objective is to improve the performance of the company and
increase the productivity. Human relation approach in management mainly targets to improve the
efficiency of the workers through recognitions, appreciations and fulfilling their needs. Human
relation approach focuses on the factors like human, psychological and social to encourage the
employees. Also the approach that is currently in use aims to get the full use of the employees
and also keep them motivated. By emphasizing on the group works also the communication
between the all levels of the organization. The current theories are modified combination of the
past theories for the effective management within the company.

The organization like BHP is using the human relation theories for the management very
effectively. They are using the human relation approach in which communication within all the
levels, conflicts resolutions of the employees, group and socializing and appreciations and
belongingness with their employees are key consideration. This approach helps the management
to keep maintaining the relations.
Human relations approach is part of human resources. It is human resource management's
responsibility to maintain the human relations within the company. It can be recommended that
for improving the sustainability of management, The manager in BHP can be allotted with the
task to provide their employees an atmosphere to extract the full use of the employee's talent.
The manager must allow and motivate the workers for participating in the routine decisions as
well as in the important matters.
Environment also plays an important role in increasing the productivity and the
performance. For that management of BHP should provide their employees proper work
conditions. They must allow their employees to socialize with each other. That also influences
the work environment.
Productivity is directly proportional to the happy employees. Happy employees are those
whose needs are being fulfilled. It is suggested that BHP must ensure the employee relations are
good within the company for maintaining the productivity. The human relation approach is
important to achieve it.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Cafferkey, K. and et.al., 2019. Perceptions of HRM system strength and affective commitment:
the role of human relations and internal process climate. The International Journal of
Human Resource Management. 30(21). pp.3026-3048.
Chatterjee, and et.al., 2020. Social customer relationship management factors and business
benefits. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Guest, D.E., 2017. Human resource management and employee well‐being: Towards a new
analytic framework. Human resource management journal. 27(1). pp.22-38.
Ishii, A. and Kawahata, Y., 2020, June. Theory of opinion distribution in human relations where
trust and distrust mixed. International Conference on Intelligent Decision Technologies.
(pp. 471-478). Springer, Singapore.
Leach, and et.al., 2021. Post-pandemic transformations: How and why COVID-19 requires us to
rethink development. World Development. 138. p.105233.
Lee, Y.M. and Hu, J.L., 2018. Integrated approaches for business sustainability: The perspective
of corporate social responsibility. Sustainability. 10(7). p.2318.
Warner, M. and Busse, R., 2017. The legacy of the hawthorne experiments: A critical analysis of
the human relations school of thought. The legacy of the Hawthorne experiments: a
critical analysis of the Human Relations School of Thought. pp.91-114.
Weatherburn, M., 2020. Human relations’ invented traditions: sociotechnical research and
worker motivation at the interwar Rowntree Cocoa works. Human Relations. 73(7).
pp.899-923.
Yakubu, Y., 2018. INTEGRATION AND DISINTEGRATION IN ORGANIZATIONS: ROLE
OF HUMAN RELATIONS MANAGEMENT THEORY. 4TH SOCIAL SCIENCES.
p.146.
Online references
About Us. 2021. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.bhp.com/our-approach/our-
company/about-us/>. Accessed on[14th Aug 2021].
Omodan, B., Tsotetsi, C., and Bekithemba, D., 2021. Analysis of human relations theory of
management: A quest to re-enact people’s management towards peace in university
system. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347521634_Analysis_of_human_relations_the
ory_of_management_A_quest_to_re-
enact_people's_management_towards_peace_in_university_system>. Accessed on[14th
Aug 2021].
Peek, S., 2021. Human Relations Management Theory Basics. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.business.com/articles/human-relations-management-theory-basics/>.
Accessed on[14th Aug 2021].
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