...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...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 Assembly Test Room Experiment The second experiment concentrated on the relationship between...
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...education and the new psychology of Freud,Jung and especially Pierre Janet. From the beginning he trained himself in public speaking, and became an outstanding lecturer. He spoke at Worker's Education Association classes and tutorials, and addressed unions and professional bodies. Human Relations Movement basically is the study of the behavior of people in groups, particularly in workplace groups and for his research including the Hawthorne Studies which examined the effects of social relations, motivation and employee satisfaction. In 1927, a group of researchers led by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger of the Harvard Business School were invited to join in the studies at the Hawthorne Works of Western Electric Company, Chicago. Elton Mayo and his associates conducted their studies in the Hawthorne plant of the western electrical company, U.S.A., between 1927 and 1930.The experiments that he conducted were Illumination Experiment,Relay Assembly Test Room Experiment, Interviewing Programme and Bank Wiring Test Room Experiment. The Hawthorne Experiments brought out that the productivity of the employees is not the function of only physical conditions of work and money wages paid to them. Productivity of employees depends heavily upon the satisfaction of the employees in their work situation. Mayo’s idea...
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...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...
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...thought of the organisation in terms of its purpose and formal structure so emphasis was placed on the planning of work, the technical requirements of the organisation, principles of management and the assumption of rational and logical behaviour. This analysis is associated with the work by writers such as Taylor, Fayol, Mooney and Reiley, which will later be discussed in greater detail. The alternative approach known as human relations was developed during the 1920’s, the years of the great depression when greater attention began to be paid to the social factors at work and to the behaviour of employees within an organisation. The turning point in the development of the human relations movement came with the famous experiments at the Hawthorne plan of the western electric company in Chicago, Elton Mayo was among the people who wrote about these experiments and he often quoted as having being a leader of the researchers, however according to Mullins and Christy (2012) there appears to be some doubt as to the extent to which Mayo was actually involved in conducting the experiments and his exact...
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...behaviours when placing them into different working environments, e.g. putting a lazy worker beside a hardworking one, changing the factory's setup everyday, etc, just to see if their productivity would increase or not. Frederick Taylor invented Scientific Management in order to make a factory more fluent and smooth on producing products, thus maximising the profit. Taylor (1911) stated that the main objective is to foster each worker's efficiency, and arranging the most suitable job to meet the worker's natural ability. Meanwhile, Elton Mayo invented Human Relations Movement to boost workers' motivation, thus maximising their productivities. Hollway (1991) mentioned that Mayo undertake his experiments in Hawthorne Electric Plant in the USA, and so, it's also called Hawthorne Effect. Similarities between Scientific Management and Human Relations approach are obvious, that are to maximise a factory/ firm's productivity. Taylor focused on maximum prosperity, which means that not only to maximising the productivity, but employers also have to pay higher wages to employees. Taylor (1911) showed that most interests between employers and employees are inevitably opposing. So, in order to meet both stakeholders' interests, employers would have to pay more to their employees, so to raise their willingness and motivation to work. while employers would have to set a reasonable wages that they're comfortable with. Human Relations adapts psychology which was to be used on workers, because Mayo...
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...The Hawthorne effect (also referred to as the observer effect is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed. The original research at the Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois, on lighting changes and work structure changes such as working hours and break times were originally interpreted by Elton Mayo and others to mean that paying attention to overall worker needs would improve productivity. Later interpretations such as that done by Landsberger suggested that the novelty of being research subjects and the increased attention from such could lead to temporary increases in workers' productivity. This interpretation was dubbed "the Hawthorne effect". Introduction Elton Mayo’s team conducted a number of experiments involving six female workers. These experiments are often referred to as the Hawthorne experiments or Hawthorne studies as they took place at The Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. Hawthorne Experiment Details Over the course of five years, Mayo’s team altered the female worker’s working conditions and monitored how the change in working conditions affected the workers morale and productivity. The changes in working conditions included changes in working hours, rest brakes, lighting, humidity, and temperature. The changes were explained to the workers prior to implementation. Hawthorne Experiment Results At the end of the five year period, the female...
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...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...
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...The Hawthorne Experiments: Management Takes A New Direction General Electric, the major manufacturer of light bulbs, had preliminary evidence that better lighting of the work place improved worker productivity, but wanted to validate these findings to sell more light bulbs, especially to businesses. GE funded the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an impartial study. AT&T's Western Electric Hawthorne plant located in Cicero, Illinois, was chosen as the laboratory. Beginning with this early test, the “Hawthorne Experiments” were a series of studies into worker productivity performed at the Cicero plant beginning in 1924 and ceasing in 1932. Illumination Studies, 1924 -1927 The earliest experiment (1924) was conducted by the NRC with engineers from MIT. The study would end in 1927 with the NRC abandoning the project. The group examined the relationship between light intensity and worker efficiency. The hypothesis was that greater illumination would yield higher productivity. Two work groups of female employees were selected for “control” and “experimental” groups. By comparing the changes on worker productivity by manipulating lighting in the experimental group with the production of the control group, the researchers could validate and measure the impact of lighting. The study, however, failed to find any simple relationship as poor lighting and improved lighting seemed in increase productivity. Indeed, in the final stage...
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...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...Question 2: Elton Mayo’s landmark 1930’s research into worker’s behaviour was later criticised by Daniel Bell and other sociologists. What lessons can Singapore businesses learn from Mayo and his later detractors? George Elton Mayo (1880-1949) was an Australian psychologist, sociologist and organizational theorist. He led a team together with Whitehead and Roethlisberger, set to study the relationship between productivity and physical working conditions. His research results have led to the establishing of new theories like the human relation (Hawthorne) and motivation theory. The Hawthorne study, a new approach that is being introduced by the sociologist, has been called the human relation approach of management. This approach was generated, because the positive aspect of the variables of the scientific management, and the focuses on mechanical and psychological variables, could not bring about a positive response in work behavior and efficiency at work. The key contributions are contained into two points; organizational situation to be viewed in social, economic and technical terms; and the social process of group behavior which can be studied in clinical method analogous. These studies have a historical importance to the behavioral approach of the analysis of management problems. The practical experiments allowed Elton Mayo to deduce the importance of groups in affecting the behavior of individuals at work. Physical conditions or financial incentives had little motivational...
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