...Explain the Hawthorne Studies. The “Hawthorne Effect” is when people change their behaviour when they notice that they are being monitored. This was first thought of by Elton Mayo (1880 – 1949), who is also the inventor of the human relations school which, says that any business or an organization which wants to maximize their productivity must ensure that the workers of that organization are fully satisfied. It also says that the management should allow the workers to be a part of the decision making process of the organization, as this will make the workers feel that they have some part to play in the organization. The Hawthorne Studies are known today as the human relations school. The Hawthorne Studies were a series of experiments which were conducted by Elton Mayo and his team over a five year period between 1927 and 1932 at the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric company in Chicago. Mayo believed that working environment and working conditions like lighting, heating, rest periods, incentive schemes, hours of work and so on had a significant effect on the workers productivity. During the five year period many experiments were undertaken in an attempt to create the perfect working environment and condition. Basically there were two groups in one group no changes were made. The working conditions remained the same. In the other group the working conditions were altered. Both the groups were observed. In one scenario as the heating and the other conditions were changed...
Words: 728 - Pages: 3
...The Hawthorne Studies Principles of Management 330 October 3, 2015 The Hawthorne Studies In 1924 to 1932 a series of experiments we're conducted on workers in a factory on how to increase work production. The experiment was conducted on the effects of the lighting in the factory; to see how the different setting of illumination will affect the production of the workers in the factory if any. The conclusion of the research showed that the production had increased not due to the reduction of the lighting, but because of the fact that the workers were being observed by the research team. This lead the research team to believe that productivity is more affective by psychological and social factors, this reaction is known as the “Hawthorne Effect”. Elton Mayo believed that management should stress on how the employees feel about the working environment, and how to motivate employees to communicate with employees. An employee or person social needs will out weight their economic needs. Therefore management should look for ways to make employees happy on the job so that they could be more productive. Some ways Mayo team looked at ways to promote job satisfaction. (Snell 36-37) Some of the significant findings of the Hawthorne Studies were: socio-psychological aspects of human behavior in organizations, the choosing of one’s coworkers, working as a group, why having a sympathetic supervisor were reasons for increases in worker productivity, why monetary...
Words: 966 - Pages: 4
...The Hawthorne Studies, researched by Elton Mayo, was conducted from 1924 to 1927. These experiments were conducted at Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago and included the examination of productivity and work conditions among segregated employees. In this experiment, Mayo segregated six female employees from the rest of their co-workers at Western Electric and utilized such variables as rest breaks, work hours, temperature, and humidity with the thought that adjusting these variables from time to time would result in higher and/or lower productivity respectively. Additionally, Mayo gave the women a friendly “observer” supervisor rather than someone who was a disciplinarian. He made frequent changes in their work conditions, but always communicated these changes to the women in advance so that they were aware prior to the occurrence. Such changes included change of hours in the work week, work day and the number of rest breaks offered and the time of the lunch hour. During the experiment, the women were frequently asked for their feedback as changes occurred. The women became a team that gave of themselves wholeheartedly and spontaneously to cooperation in the experiment. The results of this experiment and the affect on organizational theory showed that employees are motivated far more by relational factors such as attention and camaraderie than by monetary rewards or environmental factors such as lighting, humidity, etc. “Evidence showed that interpersonal relationships...
Words: 458 - Pages: 2
...Background During the early part of the century, American businesses were swept by Scientific Management, a school of thought largely developed by Frederick Taylor. He pioneered the use of time and motion studies, in which management would carefully break down tasks into simple chunks, then work out the best way for a worker to execute the chunks (all the way down to how long a step to take, how often to break, how much water to drink, etc.). The worker then executed their jobs exactly as they were told, like automatons. As part of the Scientific Management regime, companies routinely studied the effects of the physical environment on their workers. For example, they varied the lighting to find the optimum level of light for maximum productivity. They piped in music, varied the temperature, tried different compensation schemes, adjusted the number of working hours in a day, etc. The Hawthorne studies were carried out by the Western Electric company at their Hawthorne plant in the 1920's. Initially, the study focused on lighting. Two things emerged from the initial studies: (1) the experimenter effect, and (2) a social effect. The experimenter effect was that making changes was interpreted by workers as a sign that management cared, and more generally, it was just provided some mental stimulation that was good for morale and productivity. The social effect was that it seemed that by being separated from the rest and being given special treatment, the experimentees...
Words: 253 - Pages: 2
...The Hawthorne Studies; conducted in 1927 to 1932 by Elton Mayo, has been revered in the fields of psychology and management respectively. Both have derived various lessons from different aspects of the study. For example, the field of psychology looks at the affects that working in a form of an exclusive group has as presented in the Relay Assembly Test Room experiment. Management on the other hand has learned that the human psyche has varying effects on their productivity and are not merely drones driven by a single goal. (Hai, 2011) However, many criticise the relevance and contributions of the Hawthorne Studies to the studies of work and organizations. Criticisms sprouted from the results of the studies conducted which were; for the majority, inconclusive and hence being unreliable. The fact that those making these statements are ignoring is that; many management theories wouldn’t have been developed without these studies. Before the time of the Hawthorne Studies, management viewed their workers as simple drones in the company who do as they were told without question. To cut cost whilst maintaining production levels, companies would subject longer working hours and lower wages under considerably poor working conditions in order to maximise their profit. They did so because they believed the workers would continue production regardless similar to machines. When scientific management was introduced in the early twentieth century by Frederick Taylor, a huge shift in managerial...
Words: 1023 - Pages: 5
...NAME: Petra R. Wright Date: November 7, 2010 Title of Article: Hawthorne and The Western Electric Company Author of Article: Elton Mayo 1. Identify and explain the main idea of the article. Elton Mayo was the founder of the Human Relations Movement and of the Industrial Sociology. Mayo carried out the Hawthorne studies research which tooked place at the Western Electric Company, a manufacturing plant located in chicago. Mayo and his researchers attempted to measure the impact of lighting on productivity, whether or not the lighting had an effect on productivity. The result was that *Productivity increased whether or not the lighting was high or low *Something, other than money and lighting, was impacting on performance *Key factor : Attention Mayo and his team of researchers took a group of six women and segregated them. They then altered their conditions of work in a number of ways, over a five year period, and observed the effects on production and the morale of the group. Over the period, changes such as new payment systems, rest breaks of different sorts and lengths, varying the length of the working days, offering them food and refreshments were also tried, which led to in almost all cases, of improvements in productivity. At the end of the experiment, Mayo felt that he had proven his point and closed the...
Words: 438 - Pages: 2
...Assignment The Implication of Hawthorne Study in 21st Century Ashab Anis Joy ID: 2012-1-10-255 Class: MGT Course Code: 101 Sec: 7 Semester: Fall East West University Bachelor of Business Administration East West University 20th November 2012 Introduction The Hawthorne Experiments were conducted between 1927 and 1932 at the works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. Basically the aim of these experiments was to ” attempt to reduce worker dissatisfaction and resist trade union influence by the putting in place of a paternalistic package of social and recreational benefits calculated to sustain workers “loyalty” (Sheldrake 105:1996). Many little assignments were conducted in hope of putting into practice the above theory. Despite the economic progress brought about in party by Scientific Management, critics were calling attention to the severe labour/management conflict, apathy, boredom, and wasted human resources. These concerns lead a number of researchers to examine the discrepancy between how an organisation was supposed to work versus how the workers actually behaved. In addition, factors like World War I, developments in psychology (e.g. Freud) and later the depression, all brought into question some of the basic assumptions of the Scientific Management School. One of the primary critics of the time, Elton Mayo, claimed that this ‘alienation’ stemmed from the breakdown of the social structures caused by industrialisation, the factory system, and its related...
Words: 4408 - Pages: 18
...Over the years management thought has been changed due to the applied research of the Hawthorne effect. Work productivity and social behaviour and interaction have influenced management to further look at ways to improve and sustain the outcome of their workers. However one can see why a person would consider the Hawthorne studies as inefficient and not capable of truly deserving to be recognised as the fundamental change for management and being scientifically correct in the research and study used. The effects of the Hawthorne studies towards management provided managers with a different way to lead and create an understanding of their worker’s behaviour. Giving insight on different ways the productivity of its workers occurred, the future of management was influenced by the methodologies created by the Hawthorne studies. However the studies themselves cannot be truly deserving of its scientific findings, it has contributed very much to the change of management. The Hawthorne effect provides management with a better understanding of the work behaviour and attitudes of physical, economic and social variables (Pennock, G.A 1930). During the years 1927 to 1932 of the industrial revolution the series of investigations for work behaviour were conducted with the use of five selected women at Western electric factory, Hawthorne, Chicago. The research found that over time productivity continued to rise due to the experiments socialisation of workers (Obrenovic, Z 2014). Even if...
Words: 1458 - Pages: 6
...Do the Hawthorne Studies truly deserve to be recognised as producing a fundamental change in the development of management thought? The Hawthorne Studies were a set of studies carried out by Western Electric between 1924 and 1932 in conjunction with researchers from the Harvard Business School, led by Elton Mayo, at their Hawthorne Works plant (Sonnenfeld 1985 p. 112). Researchers initially set out to find the effects of lighting upon levels of production, but ultimately the evidence gathered lead to a significant shift in management thought: from Scientific Management to Human Relations (Hassard 2012 p. 1432). The methods of the studies and their originality have been censured by some scholars, some of whom feel this invalidates the findings and therefore the significance of the studies, but, despite their flaws, it is impossible to deny the far reaching influence of these studies upon the development of management thought. Scientific management was developed by Frederick Taylor to improve industrial efficiency (Taylor 1911), it was this theory of management which Western Electric was using to direct their employees at the time the Hawthorne Studies commenced. Some of the key principles of the theory were: that managers should scientifically determine how a task should be completed most efficiently and; that managers should then select the best person for the job, train them to do their tasks efficiently, and monitor performance to ensure these specifications are met (Law...
Words: 1421 - Pages: 6
...management functions and the employer-employee relationship? Bramel’s theories on the Hawthorne Studies help to inform my understanding of contemporary management functions and the employer-employee relationship by providing a critical analysis of the Hawthorne Studies, which were a major contributor in the development of management practices and the human relations movement. The Hawthorne Studies were a group of experiments undertaken in the 1920's and 1930's at Western Electrics Hawthorne Plant that provided new insights into individual and group behaviours. The study was lead be George Elton Mayo, he concluded that individual and group behaviour are closely related. Mayo concluded that social standards in the workplace were a greater factor in determining the production output of individuals then other factors such as money and environmental factors. The results of the Hawthorne studies are widely disputed due to mismanagement and corruption of some of the experiments. Bramel highlights the corrupted elements of the experiments, particularly the removal and replacement of participants mid experiment, and holds the studies in a negative light. Bramel is not the only one to cast doubt on the validity of the experiments however, there have been many opponents to the hawthorn studies’ findings over the years. Alex Carey was one of the most vocal opponents of the validity of the Hawthorne studies’ findings. Carey was particularly vocal on the dismissal and replacement of experiment...
Words: 820 - Pages: 4
...The Hawthorne defect: Persistence of a flawed theory “Like other hallowed but unproven concepts in psychology, the so -called Hawthorne effect has a life of its own.” By Berkeley Rice http://www.cs.unc.edu/~stotts/204/nohawth.html Most students of social psych are familiar with, or had better be if they want to pass. For decades, countless textbooks, Ph.D. theses, journal articles, and learned panels have cited it as a possible explanation for everything from why juvenile criminals in experimental program decide to go straight to why insomniacs sleep better in the laboratory. Whenever psychologists gather, one I apt to hear mention of the Hawthorne effect-even though, as it happens, the effect was never actually demonstrated by the original study. Proponents of the Hawthorne effect say that people who are singled out for a study of any kind may improve their performance or behavior not because of any specific condition being tested, but simply because of all the attention they receive. Those who mention the effect usually want to cast doubt on whether a given social innovation, instructional method, or therapy is really responsible for the change in behavior. Though the Hawthorne effect has been generalized to every kind of psychological study, it grew out of a pioneering series of experiments that tested the impact of improved working conditions on productivity. In typical accounts of the findings, current textbooks report: “To the surprise of the researchers, every innovation...
Words: 3045 - Pages: 13
...Brief Summary The article “Rethink the Hawthorne Studies: The Western Electric research in its social, political and historical context. Human Relations” attempted to provide an insight about the Hawthorne study conducted to provide an investigation of organisational history for a company named as “Western Electric”. The article primary objective was to understand organisational behavior within range of social, political and historical factors and to address question around identifying the kind of enterprise was Western Electric (Hassad, 2012). The study was conducted at Western Electric's factory at Hawthorne during the period of late 1920s and early 1930s. There were primary study conducted around the two case studies, and was conducted by Elton Mayo, a Harvard professor of industrial research along with fellow researchers. The two cases were related to neglecting the corporate and cultural context respectively and were reviewed in this article while the first one evolve around welfare capitalism and the another one was about Eastland disaster and to understand the impact of both cases from perspective of social organisation and communal experiences. The article also evaluates the viewpoint of other scholars and historical sources to determine the credentials of the findings (Hassad, 2012). What is the Problem? There were primarily two problems were tried to addressed through this article. The first one is related to the neglected corporate context where the Western Electric’s...
Words: 687 - Pages: 3
...Introduction The Hawthorne effect is a term referring to the tendency of some people to work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment. Individuals may change their behavior due to the attention they are receiving from researchers rather than because of any manipulation of independent variables. This effect was first discovered and named by researchers at Harvard University who were studying the relationship between productivity and work environment. Researchers conducted these experiments at the Hawthorne Works plant of Western Electric. The study was originally commissioned to determine if increasing or decreasing the amount of light workers received increased or decreased worker productivity. SLIDE 1 The Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve or modify an aspect of their behavior being experimentally measured simply in response to the fact that they know they are being studied, not in response to any particular experimental manipulation. The researchers found that productivity increased due to attention from the research team and not because of changes to the experimental variable. Hawthorne Works had commissioned a study to see if its workers would become more productive in higher or lower levels of light. The workers' productivity seemed to improve when changes were made and slumped when the study was concluded. It was suggested that the productivity gain occurred due to the impact of...
Words: 411 - Pages: 2
...The Hawthorne Experiments The Hawthorne experiments were groundbreaking studies in human relations that were conducted between 1924 and 1932 at Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in Chicago. Originally designed as illumination studies to determine the relationship between lighting and productivity, the initial tests were sponsored by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1927 a research team from the Harvard Business School was invited to join the studies after the illumination tests drew unanticipated results. Two additional series of tests, the relay-assembly tests and the bank-wiring tests, followed the illumination tests. The studies assumed the label Hawthorne experiments or studies from the location of the Western Electric plant. Concluded by 1932, the Hawthorne studies, with emphasis on a new interpretation of group behavior, were the basis for the school of human relations. ILLUMINATION TESTS In the early 1920s Chicago's Western Electric Hawthorne Works employed 12,000 workers. The plant was a primary manufacturer of telephones, and in 1924 the company provided a site to cooperate with the NRC on a series of test room studies to determine the relationship between illumination and worker efficiency. The basic idea was to vary and record levels of illumination in a test room with the expectation that as lighting was increased, productivity would too. In another test room, illumination was decreased, with the correlating...
Words: 2396 - Pages: 10
...KEY FINDINGS AND PROFILE OF HAWTHORE STUDIES 1.0 Introduction In the early twentieth century, Elton Mayo, a famous professor of industrial management from Harvard, carried out studies at the Western Electric company’s Hawthorne works, As Jiao(2009) said “with the attempt to find the factors affecting workers’ productivity, the studies included a series of behavior experiments” which was then called as “Hawthorne Experiments”. Regardless of some controversies, conclusions from the studies not only help Mayo extended his own theory in management, but also give loads of enlightenment to other fields (such as educations、sociology 、organizational behavior, etc.) This essay will show the key findings of Hawthorne studies as well as its repercussions in many fields. In the first section, operations and conclusions of each experiment will be simply introduced. Secondly, a series of new ideas originated from these findings by Mayo will be elaborated and also its applications in practice. The final part is to show some criticism on both Mayo’s research method and his theory. 2.1 Experiment One ---------Illumination studies During 1924 to 1927, Mayo’s group tested a department’s productivity under all levels of illumination in order to discover the effects of light on efficiency. However, they ended in failure for there were almost always increasing output during the process. (But, latter it was considered as an evidence of Hawthorne Effect) 2.2 Experiment Two ------- Relay...
Words: 1820 - Pages: 8
