ABSTRACT
Durkheim’s analysis of anomie and his concern about social solidarity and integration was a major influence on the work of Elton Mayo (1880-1949) who has come to be seen as the leading spokesman of the so-called human relations ‘school’ of industrial sociology. Whereas Durkheim’s sympathies were not with the ruling or managerial interests of capitalist society, Mayo’s were. In place of Durkheim’s seeking of social integration through moral communities based on occupations, Mayo put the industrial work-group and the employing enterprise, with the industrial managers having responsibility for seeing that group affiliations and social sentiments were fostered in a creative way. Like Taylor, Mayo was anxious to develop an effective and scientifically informed managerial elite. If managements could ensure that employees’ social needs were met at work by giving them the satisfaction of working together, by making them feel important in the organisation and by showing an interest in their personal problems, then both social breakdown and industrial conflict could be headed off. Managerial skills and good communications were the antidotes to the potential pathologies of an urban industrial civilisation.
