Hawthorne effect

The Hawthorne effect is the modification of behavior by study participants in response to their knowledge that they are being observed or singled out for special treatment. In the simplest terms, the Hawthorne effect is increasing output in response to being watched.

The term Hawthorne effect arose in connection with the Hawthorne studies, which were a ground-breaking series of studies beginning in the 1920s that tested the impact of working-condition variables on employee productivity. Most experts do not believe there was a so-called Hawthorne effect in the Hawthorne studies, but it persists as a widely used term.

Complicating the use of the term the Hawthorne effect is its inconsistent meaning from use to use; it is often used for a number of effects beyond the aforementioned. As for the use of the term the Hawthorne effect in psychological and health studies, many in the scientific community say it should be replaced with more specific terminology pertinent to whatever is being studied.

Hawthorne studies' contribution to modern management

The 1920s were marked by industrialism. Workers -- many of whom were immigrants or first-generation Americans -- faced long, monotonous workdays and were considered to be interchangeable parts of a big industrial "machine." It was an era during which many educated and higher-class Americans considered these factory workers to be intellectually and biologically inferior, ideas found in dystopian works by authors such as Aldous Huxley and George Orwell.

In contrast, the Hawthorne studies pioneered a sea change in the perception of what constituted appropriate treatment of workers and what constituted a more ideal management style. The result was a more humanistic view of workers, what is called often termed the human relations school of management.

Indeed, lead researcher Elton Mayo -- in contrast to the authoritarian view of ideal management -- concluded that job satisfaction increased when workers had the freedom to decide on output standards and their ideal worker conditions and were able to collaborate. Mayo believed good management was not a matter of solving problems simply with technical efficiency, but instead required skills in human relations. These included what would now be called emotional intelligence and soft skills, such as counselling, motivating and communicating -- a far cry from scientific management's symbol of a man with a clipboard timing worker.