The business organizations of today, and days to come, must employ and manage educated and enlightened human beings in their work force, in place of traditional, illiterate and less ambitious man power. The more they are educated and enlightened, the greater would be their needs and need levels. In place of physiological need satisfaction, they would be more concerned with self-esteem, self-actualization, and such higher needs based on human relations and higher values. It is primarily the responsibility of human resources management to establish, foster and maintain cordial human relations in their organization

NATURE OF HUMAN RELATIONS

Human relations can be defined as the cordial atmosphere in an organization in which people practice the art of living in such a way that they communicate, act, interact and transact in a cordial manner recognizing each others needs, views, values and temperaments so that every interaction and transaction which takes place in an organization would have concern for each others’ interests and feelings leading to better motivation and morale of people at all levels in the organization

As a result of such a relationship of mutual concern individual need satisfaction would be facilitated, and people would gain a sense of belonging leading to better morale and productivity. In tension bound business environment, people learn how to live together peacefully when they foster better human relations. So the management and managed in an organization get the motivation to cooperate with each other. In a broader sense, human relation is the art of successfully living. Business and industrial definition of human relations is it is the medium through which both employees and the company mutually cooperate to achieve more production through higher morale.

Without much doubt, the father of the "human relations" movement is Elton Mayo (1880-1949), a Harvard professor trained in psychopathology who is most famous for the well-known "Hawthorne Studies", a 20-year experiment at a Western Electric plant
The "Hawthorne Effect" is the name given to the 112% increase in output by workers who perceive that they are being studied somehow. Mayo and his good-looking male research assistants let the almost all-female group of workers at the Hawthorne plant think they were studying the effects of lighting on productivity. They found that output increased even when the lighting levels were decreased, even when salaries were adjusted downward, and even when worker complaints were ignored. By a process of elimination, the only explanation left was the attention Mayo and his assistants were paying to the workers.

Over the years, managers have used the Hawthorne Effect successfully for quick gains in productivity by implementing self-study committees, announcing surprise audits, establishing task forces of various kinds, and in general, keeping the workers tied up with busy-work that hasthe appearance of ongoing research.

Mayo stated that the reason workers are motivated by such things is that individuals have a deep psychological need to believe that their organization cares about them, is open, concerned, and willing to listen. The sociological implications are that the human dimensions of work (group relations) exert a tremendous influence on behavior, overriding the organizational norms and even the individual's own self-interests. The discoveries of "social capacity", "informal work groups", and "employee-centered management" were nothing short of revolutionary for administrative thought.

The "Cult of Mayoism" became the predominant management philosophy in its day, as administrators everywhere sought to re-train their supervisors to play the role that Mayo's assistants played. This led to the establishment of "management retreats" where managers engaged in Rogerian therapies, Maslowian therapies, sensitivity training, Parent-Adult-Child training, and other forms of group dynamics to become more employee-centered.
SOME BASIC IDEAS OF MAYOISM
1. Supervisors should not act like supervisors - they should be friends, counselors to the workers
2. Managers should not try to micro-manage the organization by an overriding concern for product or job quality at the expense of the macro-social, or humanistic, characteristics of work
3. People should be periodically asked how they feel about the work, their supervisors, andco-workers
4. Humanistic supervision plus morale equals productivity
5. Those who don't respond to group influence should be treated with sarcasm
6. Workers should be involved or at least consulted before any change in the organization
7. Employees who leave should be exit-interviewed - turnover should be kept to a minimum
SCOPE AND IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RELATIONS

Major concepts in human relations approach in organizations are primary work group, inter relatedness of personality, common goals and group cohesion, a caring organization, an effective communication, an organizational culture of mutual trust and under standing, and greater human understanding, and greater human motivation, are essential factors for efficiently actuating and managing business of an organization now and for many years to come. All such factors work together not only to establish cordial human relations in an organization, but to manage the organisation’s human resources effectively.

PERSONNEL RELATIONS

Personnel relations make part and parcel of human relations. Relations developed by effective personnel function can be determinant of human relations in an organization. Effective personnel functions leads to effective personnel relations and effective personnel relations facilitate cordial human relations