Without question, the most important contribution to the developing OB field came out of the Hawthorne studies, a series of studies conducted at the Western Electric Company Works in Cicero, Illinois. These studies, which started in 1924, were initially designed by Western Electric industrial engineers as a scientific management experiment. They wanted to examine the effect of various illumination levels on worker productivity. Like any good scientific experiment, control and experimental groups were set up with the experimental group being exposed to various lighting intensities, and the control group working under a constant intensity. If you were the industrial engineers in charge of this experiment, what would you have expected to happen? It's logical to think that individual output on the experimental group would be directly related to the intensity of the light. However, they found that as the leave of light was increased in the experimental group, output for both groups increased. Then, much to the surprise of the engineers, as the light live was decreased in the experimental group, productivity continued to increase in both groups. In fact , a productivity decrease was observed in the experimental group only when the level of light was reduced to that of a moonlit night. What would explain these unexpected results? The engineers were not sure, but concluded that illumination intensity was not directly related to group productivity, and that something else must have contributed to the results. They were not able to pinpoint what that "something else" was, though.
In 1927, the Western Electric engineers asked Harvard professor Elton Mayo and his associate to join the study as consultants. Thus began a relationship that would last through 1932 and encompass numerous experiments in the redesign of jobs, changes in workday and workweek length, introduction of rest periods, and individual versus group wage plans. For example, one experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of a group piecework incentive pay system on group productivity. The results indicated that the incentive plan had less effect on a worker's output than did group pressure, acceptance, and security. The researchers concluded that social norms or group standards were the key determinants of individual work behavior.
Scholars generally agree that the Hawthorne Studies had a dramatic impact on management beliefs about the role of human behavior in organizations. Mayo concluded that behavior and attitudes are closely related, that group influences significantly affect individual behavior, that group standards establish individual worker out put, and that many is less a factor in determining output than are group standards, group attitudes and security. These conclusions led to a new emphasis on the human behavior factor in the management of organizations and the attainment of goals.
However, these conclusions were criticized. Critics attacked the research procedures, analyses of tidings, and conclusions. From a historical standpoint, it's of little important whether the studies were academically sound or their conclusions justified. What is important is that they stimulated an interest in human behavior in organizations
In 1927, the Western Electric engineers asked Harvard professor Elton Mayo and his associate to join the study as consultants. Thus began a relationship that would last through 1932 and encompass numerous experiments in the redesign of jobs, changes in workday and workweek length, introduction of rest periods, and individual versus group wage plans. For example, one experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of a group piecework incentive pay system on group productivity. The results indicated that the incentive plan had less effect on a worker's output than did group pressure, acceptance, and security. The researchers concluded that social norms or group standards were the key determinants of individual work behavior.
Scholars generally agree that the Hawthorne Studies had a dramatic impact on management beliefs about the role of human behavior in organizations. Mayo concluded that behavior and attitudes are closely related, that group influences significantly affect individual behavior, that group standards establish individual worker out put, and that many is less a factor in determining output than are group standards, group attitudes and security. These conclusions led to a new emphasis on the human behavior factor in the management of organizations and the attainment of goals.
However, these conclusions were criticized. Critics attacked the research procedures, analyses of tidings, and conclusions. From a historical standpoint, it's of little important whether the studies were academically sound or their conclusions justified. What is important is that they stimulated an interest in human behavior in organizations