Essay About Initial Tests And Correlating Expectation

The Hawthorne Experiments
Essay Preview: The Hawthorne Experiments
Report this essay
The Hawthorne Experiments
The Hawthorne experiments were groundbreaking studies in human relations that were conducted
between 1924 and 1932 at Western Electric Companys Hawthorne Works in Chicago. Originally
designed as illumination studies to determine the relationship between lighting and
productivity, the initial tests were sponsored by the National Research Council (NRC) of the
National Academy of Sciences. In 1927 a research team from the Harvard Business School was
invited to join the studies after the illumination tests drew unanticipated results. Two additional series of
tests, the relay-assembly tests and the bank-wiring tests, followed the illumination tests. The studies
assumed the label Hawthorne experiments or studies from the location of the Western Electric plant.
Concluded by 1932, the Hawthorne studies, with emphasis on a new interpretation of group behavior,
were the basis for the school of human relations.
ILLUMINATION TESTS
In the early 1920s Chicagos Western Electric Hawthorne Works employed 12,000 workers. The plant
was a primary manufacturer of telephones, and in 1924 the company provided a site to cooperate with
the NRC on a series of test room studies to determine the relationship between illumination and worker
efficiency. The basic idea was to vary and record levels of illumination in a test room with the
expectation that as lighting was increased, productivity would too. In another test room, illumination was
decreased, with the correlating expectation that efficiency would decrease. The electric power industry
provided an additional impetus for these tests, hoping to encourage industries to use artificial lighting in
place of natural light. The Illuminating Engineering Societys Committee on Research also supported the
tests and cooperated with the NRC. From the fall of 1924 to the spring of 1927, three series of tests
were conducted and carefully monitored. Three departments at the Hawthorne plant were involved–
relay assembling, coil winding, and inspection. Workers were notified of the tests in order to attempt to
control