The History of Management
Thought
MGT 336
Week 7 Notes
Mike Bejtlich
Part Three
Social Person Era
Chapter Thirteen
The Hawthorne Studies
Hawthorne Studies

Hawthorne Plant of Western Electric
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Subsidiary of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company
“The Social Person” was not invented by
these studies, but was brought to a wider
recognition by those who interpreted the
results.
The studies have been widely publicized,
misinterpreted, praised, and criticized over
the many years since the event.
Hawthorne Plant History
& Time Line

1905: Western Electric moved to Cicero, Illinois
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Founder: Enos Barton
“The Biggest Little Railway in the World”
1914: Absorbed operations from New York &
Chicago
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Main manufacturer for Bell Telephone Laboratories
Hawthorne Works included over 100 buildings
Hawthorne Works was Western Electric’s only
manufacturing facility.
Hawthorne Plant History
& Time Line


1924-1933: Hawthorne Studies
1932-1938: Harvard researchers continued
research
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“Human Element” is critical
1940: Peak production with 42,000 workers
employed
1958: Western Electric Statistical Quality
Control Handbook

Hawthorne Plant History
& Time Line
Illumination Studies:
1924-1927

The original research
issue was the effect of
workplace illumination
on worker productivity.
Those who came
initially to Hawthorne
were electrical
engineers from MIT.
Illumination Studies:
1924-1927

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After establishing
performance baselines
in three departments,
the researchers varied
the level of illumination.
Their conclusion:
Illumination appeared
to have no influence on
input.
Illumination Studies:
1924-1927


Another attempt was made with a control group
and a variable group, placed in separate
buildings.
Again: In this case output went up in both
groups.
Illumination Studies:
1924-1927

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The illumination research was abandoned in
1927.
One of the researchers, Charles E. Snow of
MIT, concluded there were too many variables
and the “psychology of the human individual”
could have been the most important one.
Charles E. Snow
The Relay Assembly Test
Room: 1927-1933

The studies could have been trashed at this point, but
Homer Hibarger one of he researchers from
Hawthorne, and George Pennock, assistant works
manager of Hawthorne, pushed for further study.
Homer Hibarger
The Relay Assembly Test
Room: 1927-1933

Pennock had an
excellent insight:
Supervision was a
better explanation.
George Pennock
The Relay Assembly Test
Room: 1927-1933


The participants were volunteers, knew the
objectives of the study, and were observed
for a short period in their regular department
prior to going to a separate room with their
observer.
After eight months into the experiment, two
of the original participants were replaced.The
Relay Assembly Test Room: 1927-1933
The Relay Assembly Test
Room: 1927-1933

A number of changes were introduced

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The incentive payment plan was changed such
that the relay assembly group was rewarded on
their output rather than on the output of the
larger relay assembly department.
Participants were told they could make more
money under this arrangement.
Participants were allowed to talk to each other
during the work day.The Relay – one variation
The Relay Assembly Test
Room: 1927-1933
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Rest periods were introduced.
After eight months, two operators quit and two new
ones were selected.
Work-day and work-week changed.
Lunch and refreshments were provided by the
company.
The Relay Assembly Test
Room: 1927-1933

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Over a year after the studies began, all of
these “privileges,” except the small group
payment plan, were removed.
While output varied, the overall trend was
increased output.
Dr. Clair Turner, MIT:
Early Interpretation

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Dr. Clair Turner of MIT had an interpretation
of the test results:
The small group resulted in more esprit de
corps.
Difference in the style of supervision –
“relaxed and friendly” in the test room vs. “he
was mean…he died; I didn’t even go to see
him.” (Theresa Layman speaking of regular
room supervisor Frank Platenka)
Dr. Clair Turner, MIT:
Early Interpretation

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Increased earnings: average wage went from
$16 to $28-50 per week while in the Test
Room.
The novelty of the experiment.
The attention given to the operators by
others at the plant.
Second Relay Group

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A second relay group was formed by Turner in an
effort to test the pay for performance effects.
Average earnings per week had increased
significantly.
The second relay group was formed and taken from
the large group payment plan to the small group one.
Initially, output went up and then leveled off. The
study only lasted nine weeks. The group was then
returned to the original payment plan, output
dropped. That was the end of the second group.Mica
Splitting Tests: 1928-1930
Mica Splitting Tests:
1928-1930
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Mica splitters had always been on individual
pay incentives and this group was studies for
14 months.
In this group, average hourly output went up
during this period.
Turner concluded that pay incentives were
one factor, but not the only one, although it
was of “appreciable importance.”Mica Splitting
Tests:
1928-1930
The Interviewing Program:
1929-1930

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Snow and Hibarger started asking the workers directed
questions about their feelings.
Elton Mayo (1880-1949) made a contribution by
changing the interviewing program to a nondirective
approach. He believed that supervisors need to listen
more.
The Interviewing Program:
1929-1930

With the nondirective approach the length of
the interviews and the information gathered
increased.

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There appeared to be a cathartic effect. After a
worker complained, follow-up interviews revealed
that the complaint was gone. The workers felt
better even though no change in conditions had
occurred.
“Fact” and “sentiment” had to be separated.
Two levels of complaints:

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Manifest – what the employee said
Latent – the psychological content of the complaint
The Interviewing Program:
1929-1930
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Complaints were symptoms to be
explored.
“Pessimistic reveries” (negative
attitudes held by employees that could
interfere with their performance –
according to Mayo) could be reduced if
supervisors were concerned and
listened to their employees.
Group Behavior: Bank Wiring Test Room
(1931-1932)
Elton Mayo
Group Behavior: Bank Wiring
Test Room (1931-1932)
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Concerned observation, but not
intervention, with male workers
assembling switches for central office
switchboards.
Restriction with output was a surprising
finding to Turner and W. Lloyd Warner
even though restriction of output had
been described by others.
Group Behavior: Bank Wiring
Test Room (1931-1932)
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Workers had established an output norm that
was lower than management’s standard or
the “bogey.”
In the informal organization, there were two
cliques, each having norms about appropriate
in-group behavior, such as the practice of
“binging.”
Group Behavior: Bank Wiring
Test Room (1931-1932)

Researchers found that work groups:
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Deliberately restricted output
Smoothed out production
Developed intragroup disciplinary methods
Some workers were isolates, not in a clique,
because of various factors
Group Behavior: Bank Wiring
Test Room (1931-1932)

Rules for clique membership:
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Do
Do
Do
Do
not
not
not
not
work too fast. (“Rate buster”)
work too slowly. (“Rate chiseler”)
“squeal” on a member of your group.
act officious or be socially distant.
Group Behavior: Bank Wiring
Test Room (1931-1932)

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Factory as a social organization; work groups
served to protect the workers within their
group, and to protect the group from outsiders.
The workers:
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Viewed technologists and managers as following a
“logic of efficiency” which interfered with group
activities.
Were apprehensive of authority and followed a
“logic of sentiments” which reflected their feelings
and attitudes toward outsiders.
“The Hawthorne Effect”

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The Hawthorne Effect has been a part of human
relations folklore for years.
Allegedly, the findings were biased because the
experimenters became personally involved in the
social-work situation.
Theresa Layman, one of the participants, rebutted
this; so did Don Chipman, one of the observer
experimenters.
The Hawthorne Effect is widely referenced, but is
a dubious explanation of the Hawthorne results.
Human Relations

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“Pessimistic reveries” were one type of
blockage which arose out of personal, social,
and industrial problems and became manifest
in apprehension of authority, restriction of
output, etc.
Anomie, borrowed by Mayo from Emile
Durkheim to describe the break-up of
traditional society, leaving people without
norms.
What Happened to AT&T’s Bell
System and Western Electric?
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November 20, 1974: Antitrust suit charging
monopolization and conspiracy to monopolize.
1984: AT&T was ordered to divest its Bell
System and Western Electric divisions.
Lucent Technologies
Bell Laboratories
Current Use of Hawthorne
Works

1983: Hawthorne Works converted into retail
space:
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Hawthorne Works Plaza
Super K-Mart
Dominick’s Grocery Store
The tower and a portion of the plant remains.
Leadership

In the view of Elton Mayo and Fritz
Roethlisberger, leadership needed strengthening
by social and human skills from the leader.
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Influenced by Chester Barnard, Mayo concluded
that authority had to be based on social skills in
securing cooperation.
Management needed to focus more on building
group integrity and solidarity.
First line supervisors were particularly important in
good worker-manager relations.
Motivation

Motivation in the human relations literature
evolved and became more Mayo and
Roethlisberger’s advocacy rather than
based on what happened at the Hawthorne
Plant.
Fritz J. Roethlisberger
Motivation
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Early reports, such as Clair Turner’s
report and Mark Putnam’s statement
to Business Week, placed money as
important.
The test room participants stated they
liked the fact they were able to make
more money.
Motivation
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As time passed, the Mayo-Roethlisberger
theme shifted:
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Roethlisberger’s memo that Mayo would be happy
because of some evidence that physiological, not
economic, factors were related to output.
More emphasis in later writings is placed on social
belonging needs, being accepted by the group.
A later quote regarding discarding “economic
man.” (See Wren text for further discussion of this
point).
Summary
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The Hawthorne Studies, began as an investigation
into the relationship between illumination and
worker productivity, evolved into a study of the
increased output unrelated to lighting.
Improved performance was due to
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Incentive payments
Style of the supervisor.
The human relations-oriented supervisor could
satisfy the social needs of humans and the
economic needs of the organization.