Hawthorne studies

 

Abstract: The main objective of this review is to clarify the results that Hawthorne studies and if in today’s world does this effect exist and if it exists, under what circumstances does it exist and what effects does it have.

Introduction: In the 1920s, a study was carried out on workers, who were currently working at a Hawthorne electric plant, the aim of this study was to refocus on how human behavior can be incorporated into the managerial practices. This study was carried out by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger and they named this study after the plant. These studies also aimed at finding whether employees can increase their productivity if the working environment is improved. This study led to the discovery that employees perform well if they are in conducive environments such as clean workplaces and regular breaks.

Thesis statement: This study led to the discovery of an effect called, Hawthorne effect that has caused a revolution in the business world.

 Paragraph 1: After workers are introduced to a conducive environment for the first time their productivity increases, but afterward the productivity of these workers decreases when they get used to being in this environment for a long time. A certain conclusion was drawn from this study, changing the environments greatly increase the productivity, but this productivity only lasts for a very short time this can be referred to as the Hawthorne effect (Cherry, 2018).  This effect is an effect that exists in today’s business world. This study found out that workers tend to become more productive when shown more attention.

Paragraph 2: All the experiments carried out in the Hawthorne studies show that productivity of workers depends on the amount of attention and approval they receive. This study also helps show that workers want to be made to feel like they belong to a certain group and would love to be included in discussions and decision-making procedures (Cherry, 2018).  The effect discovered from Hawthorne studies exists in real life. An example of a situation where this effect exists in the business world is in a situation where an organization is giving promotions to workers who become productive, these workers will tend to be more productive to get the position but after getting the promotion they relax and decrease productivity.

Paragraph 3:This effect brought about by these studies exists in circumstances such as the one discussed above when employees want to be promoted, if employees’ salaries are increased for the first time their productivity increases and when they don’t receive another raise their productivity decrease, another situation where this effect is seen is when the seniors in an office engage the juniors in decision making and discussions the juniors tend to be more productive since they are receiving attention (Cherry, 2018).  The Hawthorne studies helped to discover that changing a variable in an employee working environment impacts their productivity positively

Conclusion: The Hawthorne studies were a bunch of experiments conducted on workers of a plant by the same name, Hawthorne. These studies came up with a conclusion and named it the Hawthorne effect. This effect exists in a real-world business situation where if employees are given much attention, they tend to increase their productivity and when that attention is withdrawn their productivity decreases. The results from the Hawthorne studies conclude that when the variables affecting the working environment change productivity increases and after these variables are withdrawn productivity decrease.

 

 

 

References

 Cherry, K. (2018). The Hawthorne Effect and Behavioral Studies. Retrieved from;             https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-hawthorne-effect-2795234