ABSTRACT
One of the themes running through almost all of European management thought, as we saw in Chapter 6, was the recognition of the human element in management and organisations. The notion that business organisations have a responsibility to ensure the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of their employees was commented on repeatedly. But there was also a strong awareness that organisations themselves are composed of human beings, that they are social and political systems as well as technical systems, and that people are the most important part of any organisation. ‘It is not our job to make chains, it is to make men and women – they will make the chains for us,’ Hans Renold had said, and a few years later Thomas Watson of IBM echoed him: ‘it is human ability above all else that will make this company succeed.’1
