Abstract: the relevance of the topic of this research is due to the influence that the “school of human relations” had on the process of forming the sociology of management in the twentieth century. The special conditions that predetermined the interest in the study of production management at the scientific level in the late XIX ‒ early XX centuries are analyzed. The article considers the contribution that was made to the process of forming the sociology of management by the brightest representative of the classical school of scientific management, F.W. Taylor. The author states the changes that occurred in the world economic situation, which caused the formation of the “school of human relations” at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s in the most developed industrial country in the world ‒ the United States. The role of research related to the Hawthorne experiment in this process is revealed. The influence of scientific results obtained by sociologists E. Mayo and F. Roethlisberger, on the formation of new ideas about social production communication. The practical significance of opening formal and informal structures in the production system as a social organization is emphasized. Recommendations given by representatives of the first generation of the “school of human relations” to Western managers-practitioners are given. The author traces the further development of the school and the doctrine of “human relations”on the example of A. Maslow’s hierarchical theory of needs, as well as concepts developed by individual representatives of the “behaviorist” direction who shared the principles of the “school of human relations”. On the example of the above-mentioned theories, we can trace the gradual process of revising the understanding of the nature of production processes. The article demonstrates a gradual transition from the idea of an employee as an “economic person” to the perception of him as a”social person”. The author emphasizes the evolution of scientific views on the problems of employee motivation, as well as the nature of professional interaction between managers and subordinates. The article analyzes the significance and role of the principles of the doctrine of “human relations” in the current economic situation.
Keywords: “school of human relations”, sociology of management, Hawthorne experiment, formal structure, informal structure, needs, motivation