The Hawthorne Effect

Behavioral theory created by B.F. Skinner an individual’s response to daily events changes are a response to the stimuli that occurs in the environment. He labeled this operant behavior and believed that causation is stimulation. More importantly characteristics of this behavior are the control of implications that may occur. I agree with the assumption that an individual’s response to stimulus that occurs in the environment and the consequences that occur. The way a person reacts to everyday occurrences can be both negative and positive.

Behavioral Management Theory is the understanding and response of employee needs to enforce motivation. This theory guides management in a better understanding of the human aspect. It involves management to treat employees as important resources in the workforce. The goal is to raise productivity and to do this by motivating employees. Motivating employees can involve incentives like employee bonuses, promotions, and the collection and redeeming of points for rewards. As the management takes interest in employees, it makes them feel like an important part of the puzzle, and in turn motivates employees to work harder. Like in most cases, if the employees are satisfied and working conditions are good, productivity raises automatically. A theorist by the name of Mayo Hawthorne devised an experiment that allowed a group of telephone line workers to be separated and observed in a private room. The controlled group of employees increased greatly in productivity. This brought the human relations movement that involved management spending time, showing interest, and rewarding employees to increase productivity. Employees felt management was

In the video titled Learned helplessness (PsychYogi, 2014), Martin Seligman conducted a study in which he took three groups of dogs and put them in harnesses. He gave each group a lever that would either stop a charge that electrocuted the dogs, or do nothing. Group one was the control group and did not get electrocuted. The dogs in groups two and three were the experimental groups. Group two had control over the electric shocks and could stop them with the lever. Group three also received the shocks every time group two did, except group three had no control over their own lever. Every time group two pushed their lever to stop the shocks, group three’s shocks also stopped. Group three never knew when their shocks would stop. The dogs in group two learned that the lever would stop the shocks, so the more times they were shocked, the less time it took them to push the lever. Group three was the only group to have symptoms of depression due to learned helplessness (Psychyogi, 2014).

B.F Skinner was an American Psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber. The chamber he set up had rats in it and a lever, once the rats pulled the lever they were given a piece of food. After this happened the rate of bar pressing would increase dramatically and remain high until the rat was no longer hungry. He was a firm believer of the idea that human free will was actually an illusion and any human

Throughout time, history and studies strongly suggest that environment plays a key role in human behavior. This even includes compromising ones moral compass to follow an authority figure or how one might use their power in the environment they are in. Studies such as the Millgram Experiment in 1962 to the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 were two similar studies that showed how easily people are swayed from what they think is right and wrong. In the novella of Fredrick Douglass, his autobiography proves the results of the studies. In all the environments that Fredrick Douglass experienced, he witness the power of authority first hand.

The employees can be afraid that the observations of their weak performance can eventually result in dismissal or extra

The psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané (1968) were interested in the Genovese incident and sought to find the answer to this psychological phenomenon. In their experiment, Darley and Latané hypothesized that the higher number of bystanders would decrease helping behavior and vice versa. The two manipulated the number of confederates during each trial and recorded the time it took for the participants to report the simulated seizure. Their results confirmed that if were more confederates, each participant would feel less pressured to help, leading to the discovery of the bystander effect.

The "Hawthorne effect" is often associated with positive results as it creates awareness of being observed, and study participants consciously change their behavior to actively comply with the researcher’s wishes (Wickström & Bendix, 2000). However, some studies suggested a negligible effect of direct observation on the observed participants (Buckley, Erstad, Kopp, Theodorou, & Priestley, 2007; Kopp, Erstad, Allen, Theodorou, & Priestley, 2006). There was no significant difference on medication error rates between the first and last day of observation (DeYoung et al., 2009). The time spent by researches with nurses to acclimate to researchers' presence before the start of study has minimized the Hawthorne effect (Dwibedi et al.,

Psychologist Tom Stafford believes that having a full understanding of the “Doorway Effect” will “help us appreciate those temporary moments of forgetfulness”. Our minds have to go through a series of levels to successfully accomplish any action. In your more routine actions, such as driving, how you do it comes much more naturally, which makes it easier to focus on your motives of the action. However, when your actions become irregular than you have to focus your attention on what you are doing rather than the purpose of what you are doing. According to Stafford the Doorway effect arises when “our attention moves between levels”. Our memories rely heavily on “association”, which can be a physical or mental environment that sparks it. When

To begin with, this is a qualitative research paper that is based on observing two small micro-level groups. Microsociology is the study of small groups, often through experimental means. My natural setting took place at Swedish American Health System in the 8th floor (Mother/Baby unit). My observation was approximately one hour and ten minutes in length and occurred around noon. I did not mention anything about my data collection in hopes of eliminating the Hawthorne Effect. The Hawthorne Effect is the unintended influence that observers of experiments can have on their subjects. Which is when the people being observed change their attitude to mess up the data that is being collected.

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.

Elton Mayo is best known for the Hawthorne effect. Mayo was well educated, studying at several different universities including engineering at the University of Glasgow. Mayo faced a lot of rejection during his career but his work greatly influenced our working environments today. He believed that industries were destroying communal harmony and that production would increase if the workers were better taken care of. He is quoted as saying that workers must rise above “indignation and frustration which the…new industrial society forced on workers” (Hoopes 130). These new managerial styles in addition to a capitalist leaning society created an unfriendly environment for the majority of workers. Despite his attempts, his theories and ideas often fell

George Elton Mayo is credited with founding the human relations movement. Mayo conducted an experiment in the 1920’s and 1930’s know as the Hawthorne study. Two of the main aspects of the study centered around illumination in the work place and varying levels of break time and work hours (Wickström, 2000). The illumination study consisted of four different experiments over the course of three years. In each experiement, there was a control group and a study group. In the varying studies, the researchers experimented with varying levels of light and varying sequences of increasing and decreasing the level of light (“Hawthorne effect”). Throughout the experiments, researchers would often find patterns of increased productivity, leading them to believe that they had

Some managers were reluctant in differentiating between their employees and allow any unfamiliar person to evaluate them. Because of this true performer might miss his/her rewards and incentives.

The studies failed to prove any positive correlations between workplace conditions and productivity. The results of the studies demonstrated that innate forces of human behavior may have a greater influence on organizations than do mechanistic incentive systems. The legacy of the Hawthorne studies and other organizational research efforts of that period began to emphasize the importance of individual and group interaction, humanistic management skills, and social relationships in the workplace.