The work of Elton Mayo in the "Hawthorne Studies"

GCSE Business Studies

BE 22022 - Construction Management

Coursework 2005/2006

A well-presented submission of at least 2,500 words on:-

Management Theorists

The work of Elton Mayo in the “Hawthorne Studies”

And critical evaluation of the contribution of his work to

Behavioural Management, Motivation Theory

And Group Theory. In addition, the relevance of his findings

In the area of Work Measurement.

Word count – 2 873 words.

Mojee Avinash Shree

04004303

Quantity Surveying

Year 2

Introduction

Hawthorne study is one of the most important theories in management that was started since 1927 and it is still an effect at work.

Individual behaviours may be altered because they know they are being studied and that was demonstrated in a research project (1927 - 1932) of the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois. This series of researches, first led by Harvard Business School professor Elton Mayo along with associates F.J. Roethlisberger and William J. Dickson started out by examining the physical and environmental influences of the workplace (e.g. brightness of lights, humidity) and later, moved into the psychological aspects (e.g. breaks, group pressure, working hours, management leadership). The ideas that this team developed about the social dynamics of groups in the work setting had lasting influence - the collection of data, labour-management relations, and informal interaction among factory employees.

This report will attempt to discuss the work of Elton Mayo and critically evaluate the contribution of his work to Behavioural Management, Motivation theory, Group theory and the relevancy of his findings.

Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne Experiments

Elton Mayo was one of the first theorists to explore the human relations side of motivation and his methods was heavily influence by Taylor. Hawthorne experiments are his most famous work and the most influential work theories which are used in today’s work place constantly.

The first phase of the studies, known as the illumination experiment, was conducted between 1924 to 1927. There was a 2.5 years of illumination level experiment. The aims of the studies was to find the right level of light in order to make the work of female coil winders, relay assemblers and small parts inspectors more efficient. The illumination level experiment was divided into four different parts. The first 3 parts were done using the whole department and the last part of the experiment was done using only 2 girls.

1924 – 1927

No control group, the experimental group was divided into 3 different departments. All showed an increased of production.
The experiment was this time divided into 2 different groups. The control group got stable illumination and the other group got a sequence of increasing light levels. There was a substantial rise in production in both group but there was no different between the groups.
Next, there was an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group got a sequence of decreasing light levels. A steady increased in production occurred in both group until the light level in the experimental group was so low that they protested and production fell off.
The last of the experiment was executed by using 2 girls only. Under a widely varying light level, there production levels stayed constant.

At that stage of the experiment, the researchers noticed that if the experimenter said that bright was good, then the brighter the workers believed it to be the more they like it. Therefore, it was something to do with their belief about the light level and not about the real actual light level and what the experimenter expected to be good and not what was materially good. The major confusion was that production increased as expected but production of the control group increased approximately the same amount. This test showed that there was more to group motivation than money.

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The second phase of the experiment known as the repetitive assembly process was conducted from 1927 to 1932. Elton Mayo and his team focussed their next research on the assembly of telephone relays where hundreds are working in a large room, assembling forty different parts into mechanical relays that were needed for telephone switching in these days before solid state electronics. The repetitive assembly process consisted of putting together a coil, armature, contact springs and insulation in a fixture and securing the parts by means of four machine screws. One minute was approximately the time for one assembly. Under normal working conditions, each assembler produced 2400 relays. Five assemblers worked at the benches while one woman procured the distributed parts. The production rate was monitored as each completed relay was placed in a chute, activating an electric counting gate. The effectiveness of which, would be measured by the increased or the decreased of the production of the relays.

One of the key issues that Elton Mayo wanted to find out was what effect, fatigue, monotony and long hours of work have on the employee and their productivity. Elton Mayo wanted to test the changes in length and frequency of rest periods and hours worked. Next, Elton Mayo used different working conditions like rest breaks, work hours, temperature and humidity in order to control these effects.

Next, Elton Mayo selected two women from the assembly line and made those two women select another four women from the rest of the workers. The women were removed from the large assembly hall to a special test room with standard assembly benches, tools and equipments. The women were put under the eye of a supervisor and the supervisor role was to be a friendly observer rather than a disciplinary one. The test room was separated from the assembly department by a 10-foot-tall wooden partition. Frequent alterations of the working condition were introduced as stated before over a five year period. The effect on production and the moral of the group was observed. But, Elton Mayo was always discussing and explaining the changes in advance with the group. Over that period changes such as new payment system, rest breaks of different sorts and length of the working days and offering of food and refreshment were provided. From time to time, the women were returned to the original and harder working condition.

The conditions and results were as follows:-

The women were put on piece-work for a period of eight weeks. Output went up.
Two five minutes rest pauses, one in the morning and the other one in the afternoon were introduced for a period of five weeks. Output went up once more.
Next, the rest pauses were lengthened to ten minutes each. This time output went up sharply.
Then, six five minutes pauses were introduced and the women complained that their rhythm was broken by the frequent pauses. This time output fell slightly.
Next, they returned to the two rest pauses but this time, in the first break, a hot meal was supplied by the company free of charge. Output went up.
The women were dismissed at 4.30pm instead of 5.00pm. Output went up.
Finally, the women were dismissed at 4.00pm. Output remained constant.

At the end of the experiment, the investigators decided to discontinue the experiment as they felt that they have proven their point. Therefore, the women were sent back to their original condition, working on Saturdays, a six day week, 48 hours week, no rest pauses, no piece work and no free meal. But the biggest phenomenon and confusion was yet to occur, rather a decrease in productivity, the output was at the highest level ever recorded averaging 3000 relays a week. Obviously, the worker’s behaviours were influenced by the effect of some changes that the investigators have unintentionally introduced.

Before the experiment had begun, the investigators have feared that the women taken from the regular work and placed in a test room would not corporate, would be negative and resistance to the experiment. The aim of introducing a friendly observer rather than a disciplinary one was to overcome this negative anticipation. Therefore, considerable interest was expressed towards the workers in order to eliminate that negative anticipation. However, due to the fact that these manipulations were unintentional, the researchers were forced to conclude that these manipulations had caused the women to improve their overall productivity and that have given birth to the Hawthorne Effects.

In the end, Elton Mayo realised that firstly, the women had felt important because they had been single out there. Secondly, the women has developed good relationships amongst each other and been allowed to set their own work patterns. Thirdly, the case of relationship had made the working place a much more pleasant working place. However, Parson (1974) argues that during the first part of the second phase and the last phase of the experiment, the workers had feedback on their work rates. But, in the rest of the experiment, they did not have feedback. Then, Parson argues that in the rest of the experiment there was at least some evidence that the following evidences were potent. For example: - rest periods, learning, given feedback like skills acquisition and piecework pay, where an individual get more money for more work.

A third phase of study, called the Bank Wiring Observation Room Experiment, was conducted from 1931 to 1932. It involved a group of 11 men who assembled terminal banks used in telephone exchanges. However, the assemblers who participated in the study restricted production because they were distrustful towards the goals of the project. The men had established their own standard of a fair day’s work. Despite the piecework pay scale that existed, they ridiculed and abused any assembler who tried to work faster or slower than the group norm. That unusual reaction to the previous experiment pointed out that the power of social setting and peer group dynamics were never to be underestimated.

Hawthorne Effect

The name "Hawthorne Effect" comes from some early work (1927-1932) on organizational measurement done at the Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois, where management tried to determine optimum levels of factory-floor lighting. Because the employees knew about the study, they responded to each adjustment in light level by increasing productivity.

It showed that regardless of the changes made in working conditions -- more breaks, longer breaks or fewer and shorter ones -- productivity increased. These changes apparently had nothing to do with the workers' responses. The workers, or so the story goes, produced more because they saw themselves as special, participants in an experiment, and their inter-relationships improved.

One definition of the Hawthorne Effect is: An experimental effect in the direction expected but not for the reason expected; i.e. a significant positive effect that turns out to have no causal basis in the theoretical motivation for the intervention, but is apparently due to the effect on the participants of knowing themselves to be studied in connection with the outcomes measured.

The major contribution of the study was that regardless of the experimental manipulation employed, the production of the workers seemed to improve. When the volunteers were reverted back to the original method of production, output went up to the highest point and workers were working without breaks so, they were producing goods for longer period but they had been motivated and bonded as a team so they were also efficient and hardworking. Therefore, the experiment of Elton Mayo had an effect on the behaviour and the motivation of the people working in the factory.

Compared to Taylor’s motivation theory, Elton Mayo’s one works a lot better in today’s work place as friendship at work becomes more and more important to the people than it did in Taylor’s time. Therefore, informal organisation or informal social interaction within the workplace affects productivity. People want to enjoy the company they keep at work and if the people do not want to let others down, they may think twice before calling for sick or leaving the work for somebody else to do, which are all too easy to do in nowadays works place. Pressure from above is another key factor. Regular medical check from Hawthorne experiments showed that when people are working under less pressure than before there was no sign of cumulative fatigue and absence from work declined by 80 per cent. The researchers from Hawthorne pointed the workplace as a social system made up of independent parts. It described the worker a person whose attitudes and effectiveness are conditioned by social demands from both inside and outside the work place.

However, informal group within the workplace can exercise strong social control over the work habits and attitudes of the individual worker. As long as the informal power is used for the benefit of the company and to increased productivity of the workers, for example: - Expectations of one another and that may be influence more by informal rather than official group leaders, then it is said to be the occurrence of depression as there is an increased importance of the jobs and on the other hand the fear of losing them. But, the power of informal group can also have some non-beneficial influence as well, for example: - if the workers decrease their rate of production and believe that their fair days work is the decrease level and does not believe in increasing production, then it can have some serious implications on the business or if these informal group have more power than the manager or the director, it might be even worse as managers will have no power on the company. Therefore, it is beneficial to have informal social relationships but it should include the workers and the bosses as well.

kThe Hawthorne researchers discovered a group life among the workers. The studies also showed that the relations that the supervisors develop with workers tend to influence the manner in which the workers carry out directives. The fact that productivity increased with every change, Hawthorne experiment showed that a constant interest in the workers and a decent treatment of the workers gave its own rewards and that there was certainly more to motivation than money. The researchers also discovered that pride is also another important factor because the workers were part of something important and the satisfaction of having some control over their own career and destiny. It is also due to the fact that their advice was being taken in to consideration by the company. Therefore, workers gain more satisfaction from their freedom and control over their working environment. The workers also felt themselves to be participating freely and without any afterthought and they were happy in the knowledge that they were working without any pressure from above or limitation from below. The researchers also discovered that the workers were not push around or bossed by anyone. Under these conditions they developed an increased sense of responsibility and instead from discipline from higher authority being imposed, it came from within the group itself. The amount produced was strongly influenced by social factors, however, the physical and mental potential of the individual should be present and all the workers should have the same goal.

Mayo‘s studies also discovered that consultation between labour and management gave workers a sense of belonging to a team. The need for recognition, security and a sense of belonging are more important in determining the worker’s morale and productivity than physical condition under which they work. The Hawthorne experiments encouraged the development of human factors and the needs in a business. The workers created pressure on the management to change the traditional way of managing human recourses. The studies encouraged participative support at lower levels of the organisation in solving organisation problems. In addition, the Hawthorne studies gave way to a more open and trusting environment that put greater emphasis on groups rather than just individual. Therefore, communication between managers and workers and workers-to-workers influence morale and thus output.

However, Elton Mayo’s work is being questioned about its relevance to today workplace. Many of the production and work methods of today workplace do not rely on teamwork and so, therefore, bonding as a team is not as desirable for a manager as before. But, it is to be noted that managers need to be aware, not only how they talk to the workers but also how there body languages behaves when talking to the workers. This is because intentionally or unintentionally, the workers will pick on this and may become motivated and demotivated by these actions.

Conclusion

Mayo’s findings were revolutionary and brought enormous contributions, not just to business but he opened up the field of industrial psychology and sociology. The effect it did have on business was huge, personnel department became widespread across the United Kingdom and the United State as managers tried to achieve the Hawthorne effect to boost production. Finally, group dynamism, inter-relationship and loyalty do not come to life by accident but it must be planned and developed.