Human Relations in Administration

Date01 June 1953
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1953.tb01680.x
Published date01 June 1953
Human
Relations
in
Administration
By
C.
A.
S.
BROOKS
Mr.
Brooks
is
Deputy Secretary
of
the East Devon Hospital Group
Management Committee.
T
is possible for an administrative unit to secure officers of the right quality,
I
to have a good organisation chart and satisfactory work methods, and
still to be far from full efficiency. The real secret of efficiency was disclosed
years ago by writers such as Mary Parker Follettl and Dr. Northcott,’ but
the principles they enunciated have never been given the attention they
deserve, particularly in the public services. Dr. Northcott declared that
full efficiency in any organisation is impossible without collaboration and
demonstrated that collaboration is an act of will which cannot be forced.
Mary Parker Follett was convinced that the fundamental organisational
problem of any enterprise is the building of dynamic and harmonious human
relations for joint effort in the most effective conduct of that enterprise.
More recent investigations have provided ample evidence that the final
measure of the strength of an organisation is the collective strength
of
the
individuals engaged in
it,
each individual accepting his own share of res-
ponsibility for the final re~ult.~
An efficient organisation is based on three assumptions
:
first, that
each individual concerned in
it
has something of value to contribute
;
secondly,
that some means is found of permitting the development of each individual
to the utmost of his capacity
;
and thirdly, that the experience of the group
is related, integrated and made effectively available. To give point to the
principles which are enunciated later for achieving such an integrative unity,
the following illustrations are offered.
X
was the chief officer of a department which consisted of four functional
sections. He was well known for his courage, his decisiveness and the speed
with which he got things done. His grasp of the work of
his
department was
excellent and he was proud of the degree of control he exerted over the
thirty-two o5cers employed in the department. When a job had to be
tackled he planned
it
to the last detail, then called his section leaders one
at a time to tell them what was expected of their sections and specified a
time limit for the results. The section leaders, taking their cue from
X,
proceeded to inform their clerks of the work they were expected to do and
the way in which they should do
it.
Because of the detailed character of
the instructions given, of
X’s
knowledge of the work, and of his way of handling
individuals who professed to have perceived a work method better than the
routine one, the targets he set were invariably achieved in the way devised
by him.
X
felt satisfied with his department, but
it
did not take a keen
observer long to find that in the wake of
X’s
forceful progress lay a number
of frustrated and unhappy subordinates who were rarely given an opportunity
of exercising their initiative or of sharing
in
the final purpose
of
the department
as
a whole. Indeed their chief concern was to
go
through the mechanical
processes
laid
down for them as quickly as possible, meanwhile exercising
their creative instincts in devising ways and means of changing their occu-
pation.
X
recently secured
a
different post, and on his departure the depart-
ment of which he had been in charge collapsed like a pack of cards. ThE
154

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