ABSTRACT
Six months after Elton Mayo landed in England his plans for retirement went awry; he worked too hard, suffered a stroke, and had to rest. Fritz J. Roethlisberger had been promoted to a professorship in human relations in January, and in July Lombard would be made associate professor. He began teaching what he called the “Mayo Syndrome.” Using a more sociological perspective, Roethlisberger and associates followed Mayo’s notions by thinking of business as a social system that requires exploratory research to answer specific managerial questions. Within industry Mayo’s associates had studied absenteeism, labor turnover, the training of foremen, problems of middle managers in a growing organization, and the relations between office and production plants. Mayo’s first task was to make himself known to businessmen and industrial psychologists, and he started by giving a lecture in London.
