Who do you trust? Human Relations and Social Embeddedness

Abstract

Our purpose is to compare the thinking of Chester Barnard and Elton Mayo, two of the major figures in the Human Relations movement. Drawing upon their writings and correspondence, as well as prior work by others, we focus on their ideas regarding the development and maintenance of cooperation, a key theme of their writings. Against the context of labor strife, both men recognized the need for the establishment of incentives and routines to build trust between management and labor. Much of their work underlies arguments that later organizational behavior theorists have used, especially in their criticisms of economic incentives as a sole stimulus for cooperation. From their arguments, we can see the importance of social embeddedness as an important consideration in determining cooperation.