The Human relations View of Motivation: Fact or Fantasy?

September 1972

Organizational Dynamics;Fall1972, Vol. 1 Issue 2, p67

Academic Journal

Article

This article discusses the social aspects of employee motivation. Awareness of the various orientations to work should lead to a clearer picture of why an individual seeks employment at a particular firm, and what he wants and expects to get out of his job in the way of such things as "meaningful" work experience salary, working conditions, and supervision. With respect to the loyalty of lower-level personnel in organizations, extensive literature indicates their preoccupation with having a secure wage, and it is conceivable that if this is provided, job attachment and even loyalty to the employer may result among some of these workers. There is scant evidence that the human relations approach will be able to adequately cope with organizational conflict unless it is rooted in person-to-person relationships that have gone awry. While the human relationist model of the altruistic, work obsessed man is flattering, it is also idealistic and unrealistic, fitting too few workers to solve many organizational problems of worker motivation.

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