During the World War II Mayo came across a typical problem faced by the foundry shops in three industrial undertakings which manufactured important component of aircraft.
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The turnover of labour in two industries were more than seventy percent and absenteeism was chronic while the situation in the remaining industries was however better.
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Alarmed at this state of affairs, the management requested Mayo to study the problem of heavy turn over and unjustified absenteeism in the industries and suggested remedial measures. The research began in 1943.
On the basis of Hawthrone experiences Mayo and his research team found a few distinctive characteristics in the three plants.
In the industry in which the turnover out was minimum and absenteeism was negligible, the management was found to have introduced new work scheme and made it clear that workers would earn group wage without any short fall in any shift of a day.
In the event of any short fall in any shift, the cut in the wages was uniformly applied. Therefore all the workers become alert and formed into a group; Linder the leadership of a natural leader who devoted time and energy in consolidating the group solidarity.
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Mayo found out how an informal group demonstrated its strength and capacity in raising the level of production by co-operative with the management.
In the case ‘of other two factories there were neither informal group nor natural leaders to knit the workers into a team» They were unable to form a team because of certain personal ethnocentricity as they were not given an opportunity to form an informal team.
Hence, there was heavy turn over and absenteeism of the labour in the production centres. Mayo prescribed that to the extent possible the management should encourage formation of informal groups and treat the problem of worker with human understanding.