When faced with business problems, managers naturally make identifying the trouble their priority. Once that is done, at least half the job is over; finding solutions is justa matter of time. This has not been so, however, with the human resources problem: how to motivate employees.Sixty years ago, the Hawthorne experiment revealed the issue, and ever since, managers, researchers, and consul-tants have been searching for the answer to the human resources problem.Why are not employees as productive, loyal, and dedi-cated to their companies as their managers know they can be? Skinner proposes four reasons why actuality has fallen so far below expectation in personnel manage-ment. For JONA readers we present a two-part abridged version of Skinner's article, which originally appeared in Harvard Business Review. Skinner's in-depth analysis of problems and suggested approach to developing human resources goes beyond identifying symptoms and pro-vides a comprehensive perspective for building an effec-tive work force.
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