FREE ESSAY ON HAWTHORNE STUDIES

HAWTHORNE STUDIES

One of Elton Mayo's major involvements in direct observation was in the famed Western
Electric researches, conducted at the company's Hawthorne Plant near Chicago, which ran
from 1927 to 1932. (80) The work of Mayo and his associates had been preceded by a series
of experiments conducted by engineers at Western Electric concerning the effect of the
degree of illumination on worker productivity. (81) In the first of these experiments,
three departments were exposed to different levels of lighting. The results were
inconsistent. In one department, output fluctuated with no direct relationship to the
intensity of illumination. In the second department, output remained relatively stable
over the period of the experiment. In the third department, output increased as the level
of lighting increased, but failed to decline when the level of lighting was decreased.
Subsequent investigations did little to resolve these inconsistencies. In a second
experiment, a test group and a control group were subjected to different levels of
lighting. Output in the test group increased, as was expected, however output also
increased in the control group where the level of lighting was held constant. A third
experiment involved just the use of artificial lighting to afford greater control over
the degree of illumination. In this case, output suffered under decreased lighting only
when the workers complained
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that they could barely see. Further informal experimentation served only to add to the
confusion as two operators maintained their level of productivity even when the degree of
illumination was reduced to the approximate level of moonlight.
Confounded by these results, company officials sought the advice of Mayo and his
associates at Harvard. The Harvard group suggested that human response had defeated the
purpose of the lighting experiments. The workers, they argued, had reacted to the
experiments themselves, not to the level of lighting, and speculated that the implicit
expression of management's concern in merely conducting the experiments had been a
determining factor. This reaction was to become know as the " Hawthorne Effect."
At the outset, Mayo's involvement in the Western Electric researches was minimal. Indeed,
Mayo never participated directly in the collection of data at the Hawthorne plant. (82)
Mayo became more prominently involved later in the experiments when problems with the
interpretation of the results arose. (83) From that point, Mayo visited the plant
frequently, assisted in training interviewers, and participated in the interpretation of
the results. (84)
The Harvard group's initial interest was in the effect of fatigue and monotony on work
performance. Therefore, the researchers decided to test for the effects of rest