Laguna State Polytechnic College

Sta. Cruz Campus

Name : ROWEL A. ELCA

HAWTHORNE STUDIES

I. INTRODUCTION
The experiments which inspired Elton Mayo and others to develop the Human Relations
Movement. From 1924 the Western Electric Company of Chicago, influenced by scientific management
theories, measured the impact of different working conditions (such as levels of lighting, payment
systems, and hours of work) on output. The researchers, Fritz Roethlisberger and William J. Dickson,
concluded that variations in output were not caused by changing physical conditions or material rewards
but partly by the experiments themselves. The special treatment required by experimental participation
convinced workers that management had a particular interest in them. This raised morale and led to
increased productivity. The term ‘Hawthorne effect’ is now widely used to refer to the behavior-
modifying effects of being the subject of social investigation, regardless of the context of the
investigation. More generally, the researchers concluded that supervisory style greatly affected worker
productivity.

II. GUIDE QUESTION

What happened during the Hawthorne Experiments?

What happened was that each employee became a team and the team gave itself
wholeheartedly and spontaneously to co-operation in the experiment. The consequence was that they
felt themselves to be participating freely and without afterthought and were happy in the knowledge
that they were working without coercion from above or limitation from below.
 They were themselves satisfied at the consequence for they felt that they were working under
less pressure than ever before. In fact regular medical checks showed no signs of cumulative fatigue and
absence from work declined by 80 per cent.
It was noted too, that each employee had their own technique of putting the component parts
of the relay together - sometimes they varied this technique in order to avoid monotony and it was
found that the more intelligent the employee, the greater was the number of variations.
The experimental group had considerable freedom of movement. They were not pushed around
or bossed by anyone. Under these conditions they developed an increased sense of responsibility and
instead of discipline from higher authority being imposed, it came from within the group itself.

III. DISCUSSION
Frederick Taylor, who died in 1915, did not live to see the employee motivation studies that
were conducted at Western Electric’s Hawthorne plant, near Chicago, Illinois, from 1927 to 1932.
However, the founder of the scientific school of management would have no doubt been interested in
the results. The Hawthorne studies undercut a core pillar of Taylorism-the notion that workers were
motivated purely by economic gain. 
Researchers from Western Electric and Harvard University led the Hawthorne studies. (General
Electric originally contributed funding, but they withdrew after the first trial was completed.) The studies
were intended to examine the influence of environmental variables on a group of production workers.
The group of workers was divided into two subgroups: a test group, which would undergo
environmental changes, and a control group. The members of the control group would work under
normal, constant environment conditions. 
The researchers began by manipulating the lighting of the test group. When lighting for the test
group was increased, their productivity increased--but the productivity of the control group increased,
as well. This result was somewhat unexpected, since the lighting at the workstations of the control
group had not been altered. 
The researchers then decreased the lighting at the test group’s workstations. Surprisingly, both
the test group and the control group continued to improve their productivity. There were no decreases
in productivity until the light was reduced to the point where the workers could barely see. The
researchers concluded that light did not have a significant impact on the motivation of production
workers. This led General Electric, a light bulb manufacturer, to withdraw their funding. 
 The next experiment utilized a mainstay of scientific management: incentive-based, piecework
system. The researchers expected, according to the conventional wisdom of the day, that this would
inspire the employees to dramatically increase their pace. However, rather than working as fast as they
could individually, the workers calibrated themselves as a group. Employees who worked more slowly
than average were derided as “chiselers.” Employees who attempted to work faster than the group
were called “rate busters.” In other words, any significant deviation from the collectively imposed norm
was punished. 
These results were, of course, a major blow to the position of scientific management, which held
that employees were only motivated by individual economic interest. The Hawthorne studies drew
attention to the social needs as an additional source of motivation. Taylor’s emphasis on economic
incentives was not wholly discredited, but economic incentives were now viewed as one factor--not the
sole factor--to which employees responded.

IV. IMPLICATIONS
They unanimously showed marked preference for working in the test room rather than the
regular department, with the following reasons, small groups, nature of supervision, earnings, novelty of
the situation interest in the experiment and attention received in the test room.

V. REFERENCES
http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/hawthorne_02.html
http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/20761.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_Hawthorne_studies_and_significance_of_human_relations_m
ovement
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_Hawthorne_studies_and_significance_of_human_relations_m
ovement
http://www.beechmontcrest.com/hawthorne_studies.htm
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Hawthorne_effect.aspx
 Douglas MacGregor (Theory X versus Theory Y)
I. INTRODUCTION