Bartleby & HRM: A Historical Perspective
Written by Herman Melville in 1853, Bartleby, the Scrivener is a narrative told by a Lawyer and his experience with Bartleby, a scrivener the Lawyer hired, whom he described as “pallidly neat, pitiable respectable, incurably forlorn!” (Melville, p. 8). Bartleby appears to be a wonderfully dedicated worker when he first starts copying for the Lawyer, however, he slowly withdrawals from life (and withdrawals completely by the end of the story), as he would “prefer not to” do anything asked of him. Throughout the narrative, the Lawyer fails to be an effective leader to his employee’s and it is evident that he is lacking in management training and skills. This simplistic story told leaves room for interpretation and use of creative thinking to understanding both the Lawyer and Bartleby, and to help identify Human Resource Management principles that could be applied in this case to create a more productive and profitable environment. Some major issues that arise in the story are managing employee performance, clearly communicating expectations, and creating and implementing policies to handle such issues. It is easy to understand the Lawyer’s lack of HRM knowledge when studying the historical perspective of HRM and the timeline that follows.
HRM has slowly and continuously developed since the early 19th century. “For the last centuries and decades, empirical work has paid particular attention to the link between the practice of HRM and organizational performance.” (Vani, 2011, p. 128). Robert Owen, a British factory owner, who lived from 1771 to 1858, is known for being a pioneer of HRM. This was the time of the industrial revolution, and at a young age Owen became very intrigued with learning about the effects of the workplace on people’s lives. His concerns grew greatly as he witnessed the “rapid decline in living and working conditions of workers, their families, and especially children.” (Hatcher, 2013, p. 418). At this time in history child labor was the norm, with children working in factories at ages as young as five! Owen was determined to create an environment that was clean and safe for his workers. He set out to create standards for working conditions and to have appropriate work hours. Owen was a spokesman for equality in the workforce and an advocate for education. He believed in allowing woman to work alongside men and he implemented an age requirement of ten to work in his factory. Owen formed an institute to educate his young workers, and also to build the character of his other workers. “The innovations he cultivated and implemented provide evidence that a focus on workers’ moral character and community environment coupled with human management leads to more productive and “happier” workers and families.” (Hatcher, 2013 p. 426). Owen was one of the first managers known for concentrating on his employee’s welfare and how that contributed to a better more productive workplace and fulfilled worker.
Fast forward to the early 19th century when a man named Frederick Winslow Taylor became famous for his publication: The Principles of Scientific Management in 1911. Taylor’s method of producing the best outcome for both the employer and employee are spelled out by four principles:
“1. Scientifically examine each element of a job
2. Systematically select, train, teach and develop each individual worker,
3. Work cooperatively with the worker to ensure that the job is being done in the best possible way
4. Give the manager the responsibility to determine how the job should be done, while giving the worker the responsibility to do the job.” (Blake & Mosely, 2011, p. 348-349).
Although some of Taylor’s ideas are not completely accepted today in HRM, such as his belief that workers were only motivated by money, and that only higher level managers were qualified to have input in the planning process of how work should be completed, his scientific method was implemented in many factories, agencies and companies after his publication was released, and helped generate efficiency and greater profits. Taylor’s principles of management paved the way for how to structure an organization and have remained intact in the workforce, but there was something missing in his theory. The missing link was to take a behavior approach to managing personnel along with the scientific requirements.
As the HR movement began to accelerate, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was developed by Abraham Maslow in 1943, proposed as an explanation to human motivation. The Hierarchy starts with the most basic human needs known as Physiological needs, and progresses to “self-actualization: needs to better ourselves.” (Dias, 2011, p. 218). It is important to understand that Maslow did not intend the need of self-actualization to be “an endpoint, but rather an ongoing process that involves dozens of little growth choices that entail risk and require courage.” (O’Connor & Yballe, 2007, p. 742). Employers should work towards meeting the need of their employee’s identified by Maslow to keep them motivated.
Other people contributing to the HR movement are Frederick Herzberg, who developed a Two-Factor Theory in 1959, and Douglas McGregor, who proposed his XY theory in 1960. Herzberg’s theory is comprised of motivation and hygiene factors, where hygiene factors are expected of employers but do not motivate employees to be better. Some examples of hygiene factors are working conditions and company policies. According to Hertzberg, the “top six motivation factors are: Achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth.” (Dias, 2011, p. 218). McGregor’s theory takes a look at management styles and how they are related to keeping employee’s long term. These theorists contributed to the forward motion of the HR movement, as did the United States government, seeking workers’ rights and social justice into the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Included in the movement is The Equal Pay Act of 1963 which was put into legislation as a step towards equality in the workforce, requiring employers to pay men and women the same wages for the same job. (Kovac, 2004). A year later, in 1964, the Civil Rights Act became a new law making it “illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” (Holland, 2014). As a result, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was put into place in 1965 to enforce the new law. Another example of the government taking action to create a safe and healthy work environment is when OSHA was created in 1970 to set and enforce standards in the workplace. (Dias, 2011, p.426).
Over the last fifty years, more laws have been created and added to, with the common goal of creating a nonhazardous and equal opportunity work environment for all people. Present day, HRM plays a significant role in the success or failure of a business. It is encompassed with a combination of theories geared towards understanding human nature, as well as scientific means of structure and organization. Understanding HRM has become a requirement in educating future business professionals to equip them with the tools necessary for managing a business’ greatest asset; their employee’s. The Lawyer in Herman Melville’s story, Bartleby, the Scrivener, is a great example of how a manager can fail his employee’s if he is not properly trained and educated on HRM principles. If the Lawyer would have been exposed to such teachings, which were not available to him at the time of his existence, the outcome of the story may have been one of success. It is important to understand the history that has laid the foundation for current teachings and practices in HRM and how they became a necessary component of business practices around the world.
Written by Herman Melville in 1853, Bartleby, the Scrivener is a narrative told by a Lawyer and his experience with Bartleby, a scrivener the Lawyer hired, whom he described as “pallidly neat, pitiable respectable, incurably forlorn!” (Melville, p. 8). Bartleby appears to be a wonderfully dedicated worker when he first starts copying for the Lawyer, however, he slowly withdrawals from life (and withdrawals completely by the end of the story), as he would “prefer not to” do anything asked of him. Throughout the narrative, the Lawyer fails to be an effective leader to his employee’s and it is evident that he is lacking in management training and skills. This simplistic story told leaves room for interpretation and use of creative thinking to understanding both the Lawyer and Bartleby, and to help identify Human Resource Management principles that could be applied in this case to create a more productive and profitable environment. Some major issues that arise in the story are managing employee performance, clearly communicating expectations, and creating and implementing policies to handle such issues. It is easy to understand the Lawyer’s lack of HRM knowledge when studying the historical perspective of HRM and the timeline that follows.
HRM has slowly and continuously developed since the early 19th century. “For the last centuries and decades, empirical work has paid particular attention to the link between the practice of HRM and organizational performance.” (Vani, 2011, p. 128). Robert Owen, a British factory owner, who lived from 1771 to 1858, is known for being a pioneer of HRM. This was the time of the industrial revolution, and at a young age Owen became very intrigued with learning about the effects of the workplace on people’s lives. His concerns grew greatly as he witnessed the “rapid decline in living and working conditions of workers, their families, and especially children.” (Hatcher, 2013, p. 418). At this time in history child labor was the norm, with children working in factories at ages as young as five! Owen was determined to create an environment that was clean and safe for his workers. He set out to create standards for working conditions and to have appropriate work hours. Owen was a spokesman for equality in the workforce and an advocate for education. He believed in allowing woman to work alongside men and he implemented an age requirement of ten to work in his factory. Owen formed an institute to educate his young workers, and also to build the character of his other workers. “The innovations he cultivated and implemented provide evidence that a focus on workers’ moral character and community environment coupled with human management leads to more productive and “happier” workers and families.” (Hatcher, 2013 p. 426). Owen was one of the first managers known for concentrating on his employee’s welfare and how that contributed to a better more productive workplace and fulfilled worker.
Fast forward to the early 19th century when a man named Frederick Winslow Taylor became famous for his publication: The Principles of Scientific Management in 1911. Taylor’s method of producing the best outcome for both the employer and employee are spelled out by four principles:
“1. Scientifically examine each element of a job
2. Systematically select, train, teach and develop each individual worker,
3. Work cooperatively with the worker to ensure that the job is being done in the best possible way
4. Give the manager the responsibility to determine how the job should be done, while giving the worker the responsibility to do the job.” (Blake & Mosely, 2011, p. 348-349).
Although some of Taylor’s ideas are not completely accepted today in HRM, such as his belief that workers were only motivated by money, and that only higher level managers were qualified to have input in the planning process of how work should be completed, his scientific method was implemented in many factories, agencies and companies after his publication was released, and helped generate efficiency and greater profits. Taylor’s principles of management paved the way for how to structure an organization and have remained intact in the workforce, but there was something missing in his theory. The missing link was to take a behavior approach to managing personnel along with the scientific requirements.
As the HR movement began to accelerate, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was developed by Abraham Maslow in 1943, proposed as an explanation to human motivation. The Hierarchy starts with the most basic human needs known as Physiological needs, and progresses to “self-actualization: needs to better ourselves.” (Dias, 2011, p. 218). It is important to understand that Maslow did not intend the need of self-actualization to be “an endpoint, but rather an ongoing process that involves dozens of little growth choices that entail risk and require courage.” (O’Connor & Yballe, 2007, p. 742). Employers should work towards meeting the need of their employee’s identified by Maslow to keep them motivated.
Other people contributing to the HR movement are Frederick Herzberg, who developed a Two-Factor Theory in 1959, and Douglas McGregor, who proposed his XY theory in 1960. Herzberg’s theory is comprised of motivation and hygiene factors, where hygiene factors are expected of employers but do not motivate employees to be better. Some examples of hygiene factors are working conditions and company policies. According to Hertzberg, the “top six motivation factors are: Achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth.” (Dias, 2011, p. 218). McGregor’s theory takes a look at management styles and how they are related to keeping employee’s long term. These theorists contributed to the forward motion of the HR movement, as did the United States government, seeking workers’ rights and social justice into the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Included in the movement is The Equal Pay Act of 1963 which was put into legislation as a step towards equality in the workforce, requiring employers to pay men and women the same wages for the same job. (Kovac, 2004). A year later, in 1964, the Civil Rights Act became a new law making it “illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” (Holland, 2014). As a result, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was put into place in 1965 to enforce the new law. Another example of the government taking action to create a safe and healthy work environment is when OSHA was created in 1970 to set and enforce standards in the workplace. (Dias, 2011, p.426).
Over the last fifty years, more laws have been created and added to, with the common goal of creating a nonhazardous and equal opportunity work environment for all people. Present day, HRM plays a significant role in the success or failure of a business. It is encompassed with a combination of theories geared towards understanding human nature, as well as scientific means of structure and organization. Understanding HRM has become a requirement in educating future business professionals to equip them with the tools necessary for managing a business’ greatest asset; their employee’s. The Lawyer in Herman Melville’s story, Bartleby, the Scrivener, is a great example of how a manager can fail his employee’s if he is not properly trained and educated on HRM principles. If the Lawyer would have been exposed to such teachings, which were not available to him at the time of his existence, the outcome of the story may have been one of success. It is important to understand the history that has laid the foundation for current teachings and practices in HRM and how they became a necessary component of business practices around the world.