Comments on: Questioning the Hawthorne effect

By: behailu

behailu — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:31:50 +0000

the hawthorn effect is all about the motivation of the people due to a proper attention that could be given for them.It is obvious that people cannot be motivated simply by what change has been made on them unless they believe that the changes offer them what they really needs.The hawthorn effect explains the degree to which an individual motivated as a result of not increament in salary but the way they are treated.

By: Stanley J. Guinn, Ph.D.

Stanley J. Guinn, Ph.D. — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:04:04 +0000

As a retired professor of sociology with 35 years experience dealing with human behavior, I find that there is much misunderstanding about the Hawthorne Effect, even among professionals. Few, if any, living people have read the original notes of the Hawthorne studies, and simply rely on other people’s interpretations of the event.

Some individuals say that the Hawthorne Effect is that “if any physical change is made in a working environment, production will increase.” Still others believe that “production increases if workers know that they are being studied.” These assertions are not necessarily correct.

The realistic conclusion that can be drawn from the Hawthorne study is that “if workers BELIEVE management is genuinely interested in their welfare, they will respond in a positive manner. Increased production is simply only one of a several possible positive responses.”

By: Jason Dyer

Jason Dyer — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:10:13 +0000

Hmm, I guess I was interpreting the definition differently then.

In the case of the educational study the observational effect had arguably a greater affect than the money; it’s just the money didn’t have a negative impact.

By: Gene Harris

Gene Harris — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:20:45 +0000

I wonder if the Hawthorn effect kicks in if your company has announced layoffs or a reduction in force?

By: John S.

John S. — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:44:14 +0000

I always considered the key feature of the Hawthorn effect to be the totally counterintuitive (and now shown to be erroneous) conclusion that productivity increased when the lighting levels were lowered. That’s what Levitt and List seem to have debunked. In the Indian schools study mentioned in the previous comment, I was expecting to read that the measures of success improved after teachers’ salaries were lowered, similar to the way those measures improved in other schools after teachers’ salaries were increased. But that’s not what was shown, so I don’t think the study validates the Hawthorn effect.

By: Jason Dyer

Jason Dyer — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:56:14 +0000

This educational study saw the effect:

http://numberwarrior.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/curious-results-in-india-merit-pay-study/