Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works

In the 1920s and 1930s, a series of experiments were conducted at an electric company by the name of Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works in Hawthorne, Illinois. Research was commissioned by the electric company to determine whether there was a connection between the work environment and worker productivity. Researchers analyzed how altered lighting, the timing of breaks, and the length of the workday affected employee productivity.

The primary experiment that focused on the lighting of the work facility sought to determine whether increasing or decreasing the amount of light affected the productivity of workers during their shifts. The results showed that any change in lighting increased productivity during the experiment, but the productivity returned to normal after the experiment.

The additional experiments which studied the timing of breaks and the length of the workday found similar results. Any change to the environment led to an increase in productivity while the experiment took place.

The data from the Hawthorne experiment was more closely analyzed in 1955 by researcher Henry Landsberger. Landsberger concluded that the workers increased their productivity due to the increased attention from their supervisors. It was not the change in the environment that impacted productivity, the company output changed simply because employees were aware that they were under observation.

Landsberger described the results of his studies as the Hawthorne effect, a term that has remained in use in modern psychology for describing psychological factors that affect how people behave in an experiment. Some researchers in the twenty-first-century claim that original results of the Hawthorne experiment may have been overstated, however many other current researchers have concluded that research participation effects do exist.

I believe that understanding the Hawthorne effect and Hawthorne experiment is essential for minimizing bias not only in psychology, but in business, economics, and other fields that may design experiments to analyze people’s behavior. As shown in the case of the original experiment, the Hawthorne effect is particularly important in industrial and organizational psychology. When people are observed, they may know what the “researcher” is looking to find and thus either seek to help confirm or deny the researcher’s hypothesis.

I also believe that the Hawthorne effect proves that when a person is given attention or special treatment, even in the case of a study, they feel valued and thus an additional pressure to excel in their productivity. This is applicable to all of our everyday lives. If we give a friend or peer attention, they will most likely be more engaged with us and sacrifice more of their energy to us.