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8/3/2019 Week7 Notes

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The History of ManagementThought

MGT 336

Week 7 NotesMike Bejtlich



Part Three

Social Person Era



Chapter Thirteen

The Hawthorne Studies



Hawthorne Studies Hawthorne Plant of Western Electric

Subsidiary of the American Telephone andTelegraph Company

“The Social Person” was not invented bythese studies, but was brought to a widerrecognition by those who interpreted theresults.

The studies have been widely publicized,misinterpreted, praised, and criticized overthe many years since the event.



Hawthorne Plant History

& Time Line 1905: Western Electric moved to Cicero, Illinois

Founder: Enos Barton

“The Biggest Little Railway in the World” 1914: Absorbed operations from New York &

Chicago Main manufacturer for Bell Telephone Laboratories

Hawthorne Works included over 100 buildings Hawthorne Works was Western Electric’s only

manufacturing facility.



Hawthorne Plant History

& Time Line

1924-1933: Hawthorne Studies

1932-1938: Harvard researchers continuedresearch “Human Element” is critical

1940: Peak production with 42,000 workersemployed

1958: Western Electric Statistical QualityControl Handbook Hawthorne Plant History

& Time Line



Illumination Studies:

1924-1927 The original research

issue was the effect of workplace illuminationon worker productivity.Those who cameinitially to Hawthornewere electrical

engineers from MIT.




1924-1927 After establishing

performance baselinesin three departments,the researchers variedthe level of illumination.

Their conclusion:Illumination appeared

to have no influence oninput.




1924-1927 Another attempt was made with a control group

and a variable group, placed in separate

buildings. Again: In this case output went up in both

groups.




1924-1927 The illumination research was abandoned in

1927.

One of the researchers, Charles E. Snow of MIT, concluded there were too many variablesand the “psychology of the human individual” could have been the most important one.

Charles E. Snow



The Relay Assembly Test

Room: 1927-1933 The studies could have been trashed at this point, but

Homer Hibarger one of he researchers fromHawthorne, and George Pennock, assistant worksmanager of Hawthorne, pushed for further study.

Homer Hibarger




Room: 1927-1933

Pennock had an

excellent insight:Supervision was abetter explanation.

George Pennock




Room: 1927-1933 The participants were volunteers, knew the

objectives of the study, and were observed

for a short period in their regular departmentprior to going to a separate room with theirobserver.

After eight months into the experiment, two

of the original participants were replaced.TheRelay Assembly Test Room: 1927-1933




Room: 1927-1933 A number of changes were introduced

The incentive payment plan was changed such

that the relay assembly group was rewarded ontheir output rather than on the output of thelarger relay assembly department.

Participants were told they could make moremoney under this arrangement.

Participants were allowed to talk to each otherduring the work day.The Relay – one variation




Room: 1927-1933 Rest periods were introduced.

After eight months, two operators quit and two newones were selected.

Work-day and work-week changed.

Lunch and refreshments were provided by thecompany.




Room: 1927-1933

Over a year after the studies began, all of these “privileges,” except the small grouppayment plan, were removed.

While output varied, the overall trend wasincreased output.



Dr. Clair Turner, MIT:

Early Interpretation Dr. Clair Turner of MIT had an interpretation

of the test results:

The small group resulted in more esprit decorps.

Difference in the style of supervision – “relaxed and friendly” in the test room vs. “hewas mean…he died; I didn’t even go to seehim.” (Theresa Layman speaking of regularroom supervisor Frank Platenka)



Dr. Clair Turner, MIT:

Early Interpretation

Increased earnings: average wage went from

$16 to $28-50 per week while in the TestRoom.

The novelty of the experiment.

The attention given to the operators byothers at the plant.



Second Relay Group A second relay group was formed by Turner in an

effort to test the pay for performance effects. Average earnings per week had increased

significantly. The second relay group was formed and taken from

the large group payment plan to the small group one.Initially, output went up and then leveled off. Thestudy only lasted nine weeks. The group was then

returned to the original payment plan, outputdropped. That was the end of the secondgroup.Mica Splitting Tests: 1928-1930



Mica Splitting Tests:

1928-1930 Mica splitters had always been on individual

pay incentives and this group was studies for

14 months. In this group, average hourly output went up

during this period.

Turner concluded that pay incentives wereone factor, but not the only one, although itwas of “appreciable importance.”MicaSplitting Tests:

1928-1930



The Interviewing Program:

1929-1930 Snow and Hibarger started asking the workers directed

questions about their feelings.

Elton Mayo (1880-1949) made a contribution bychanging the interviewing program to a nondirectiveapproach. He believed that supervisors need to listenmore.




1929-1930 With the nondirective approach the length of

the interviews and the information gatheredincreased. There appeared to be a cathartic effect. After a

worker complained, follow-up interviews revealedthat the complaint was gone. The workers feltbetter even though no change in conditions hadoccurred.

“Fact” and “sentiment” had to be separated.

Two levels of complaints: Manifest – what the employee said

Latent – the psychological content of the complaint




1929-1930 Complaints were symptoms to be

explored.

“Pessimistic reveries” (negative

attitudes held by employees that couldinterfere with their performance – according to Mayo) could be reduced if supervisors were concerned andlistened to their employees.

Group Behavior: Bank Wiring Test Room(1931-1932)

Elton Mayo



Group Behavior: Bank Wiring

Test Room (1931-1932) Concerned observation, but not

intervention, with male workers

assembling switches for central officeswitchboards.

Restriction with output was a surprising

finding to Turner and W. Lloyd Warnereven though restriction of output hadbeen described by others.




Test Room (1931-1932) Workers had established an output norm that

was lower than management’s standard or

the “bogey.” In the informal organization, there were two

cliques, each having norms about appropriatein-group behavior, such as the practice of

“binging.”




Test Room (1931-1932) Researchers found that work groups:

Deliberately restricted output

Smoothed out production Developed intragroup disciplinary methods

Some workers were isolates , not in a clique,because of various factors




Test Room (1931-1932)

Rules for clique membership:

Do not work too fast. (“Rate buster”)

Do not work too slowly. (“Rate chiseler”)

Do not “squeal” on a member of your group.

Do not act officious or be socially distant.




Test Room (1931-1932) Factory as a social organization; work groups

served to protect the workers within theirgroup, and to protect the group from outsiders.

The workers: Viewed technologists and managers as following a “logic of efficiency” which interfered with groupactivities.

Were apprehensive of authority and followed a “logic of sentiments” which reflected their feelingsand attitudes toward outsiders.



“The Hawthorne Effect” The Hawthorne Effect has been a part of human

relations folklore for years.

Allegedly, the findings were biased because theexperimenters became personally involved in thesocial-work situation.

Theresa Layman, one of the participants, rebuttedthis; so did Don Chipman, one of the observer

experimenters. The Hawthorne Effect is widely referenced, but is

a dubious explanation of the Hawthorne results.



Human Relations “Pessimistic reveries” were one type of

blockage which arose out of personal, social,

and industrial problems and became manifestin apprehension of authority, restriction of output, etc.

Anomie, borrowed by Mayo from Emile

Durkheim to describe the break-up of traditional society, leaving people withoutnorms.



What Happened to AT&T’s Bell

System and Western Electric?

November 20, 1974: Antitrust suit chargingmonopolization and conspiracy to monopolize.

1984: AT&T was ordered to divest its BellSystem and Western Electric divisions.

Lucent Technologies

Bell Laboratories



Current Use of Hawthorne

Works 1983: Hawthorne Works converted into retail

space:

Hawthorne Works Plaza Super K-Mart

Dominick’s Grocery Store

The tower and a portion of the plant remains.



Leadership In the view of Elton Mayo and Fritz

Roethlisberger, leadership neededstrengthening by social and human skills from

the leader. Influenced by Chester Barnard, Mayo concluded

that authority had to be based on social skills insecuring cooperation.

Management needed to focus more on buildinggroup integrity and solidarity.

First line supervisors were particularly important ingood worker-manager relations.



Motivation Motivation in the human relations literature

evolved and became more Mayo and

Roethlisberger’s advocacy rather thanbased on what happened at the HawthornePlant.

Fritz J. Roethlisberger



Motivation Early reports, such as Clair Turner’s

report and Mark Putnam’s statement

to Business Week , placed money asimportant.

The test room participants stated they

liked the fact they were able to makemore money.



Motivation As time passed, the Mayo-Roethlisberger

theme shifted:

Roethlisberger’s memo that Mayo would be happybecause of some evidence that physiological, noteconomic, factors were related to output.

More emphasis in later writings is placed on social

belonging needs, being accepted by the group. A later quote regarding discarding “economic

man.” (See Wren text for further discussion of thispoint).



Summary The Hawthorne Studies, began as an investigation

into the relationship between illumination andworker productivity, evolved into a study of theincreased output unrelated to lighting.

Improved performance was due to

Incentive payments

Style of the supervisor.

The human relations-oriented supervisor couldsatisfy the social needs of humans and theeconomic needs of the organization.

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