Hawthorne studies marked the continuation of the Saint-Simonian tradition after a century – long gap, and the beginning of human relations

Saint-Simonian tradition is concerned with anti-rabble Hypothesis

The context of HRT is provided by the first world war, high noon of the scientific management and great economic depression

Taylor’s philosophy has resulted in treating the workers as machines. Therefore HRT came up with a new idea of treating the people like human beings.

With this vision HRT emphasises the following aspects:

• Individual
• Informal organisations
• Informal communication
• Participative management
• Democratic leadership
• Non-material rewards to motivation

However the HRT was criticised on various grounds like

1. Human relations may not be the reason better production
2. It is a new kind of exploiting the workers
3. Mayoists were cow sociologists and happiness boys
4. The scientific approach of HRT is doubtful

However HRT has laid foundation to treat the workers as human beings but not as inert and isolated machines.