As assumptions about workers and their motivations changed, so did the
dominant framework for an understanding of the role of management and
leadership. Management’s role was originally conceived of as documenting
tasks and procedures, and then supervising and controlling workers
accordingly. With the recognition of the psychological components of human
motivation came the need to broaden the definition of management to
include “human relations” in order to keep workers satisfied and productive.
Importantly, however, while the parameters of management changed, the
goals typically remained the same—to improve and maintain productivity.
In many cases, the idea was to treat people better and more humanely in
order to get better performance from them. It wasn’t until the last severaldecades that the argument that treating people with respect and dignity is
important in its own right, not simply as a means to improve production,
gained currency in the management literature.