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Although human relationships have existed since the beginning of time, the art and science of trying to deal with them in complex organizations is relatively new. In the early days people worked alone or in such small groups that their work relationships were easily handled. It has been popular to assume that under these conditions people worked in a Utopia of happiness and fulfillment, gut this assumption is largely a nostalgic reinterpretation of history. Actual conditions were brutal and backbreaking. People worked from dawn until dusk under intolerable condition of disease, filth, danger and scarcity of resources. They had to work this was to survive, and very little effort was devoted tho their job satisfaction.
Then came the industrial revolution. In the beginning the condition of people did not improve, but at least the seed was planted for potential improvement. Industry expanded the supply of goods and knowledge that eventually gave workers increased wages, shorter hours, and more work satisfaction. In this new industrial environment Robert Owen, a young Welsh factory owner, about the year 1800, was one of the first to emphasize the human needs of employees. He refused to employ young children. He taught his workers cleanliness and temperance and improved their working conditions. This cold hardly be called modern organizational behavior, but it was a beginning. He was called "the real father" of personnel administration by an early writer
. Andrew Ure incorporated human factors into his work The Philosophy of Manufactures, published in 1835. He recognized the mechanical and commercial parts of manufacturing but he also added a third factor, which was the human factor. He provided workers with hot tea, medical treatment, "a fan apparatus" for ventilation, and sickness payments. The ideas of Owen and Ure were accepted slowly or not at all, and they often deteriorated into a paternalistic, do-good approach rather than a genuine recognition of the importance of people at work.
Interest in people at work was awakened by Frederick W. Taylor in the United States in the early 1900s. He is often called "the father of scientific management," and the changes he brought to management paved the way for later development of organizational behavior. His work eventually led to improved recognition and productivity for industrial workers. he pointed out that just as there was a best machine for a job, sure were there best ways of people to do their jobs. To be be sure, the goal was still technical efficiency, but at least management was awakened to the importance of one of its neglected resources.