Video: Hawthorne Effect [2:20 min]

What can be learned from the Hawthorne Studies to help management improve productivity?

As you learned in Section 9.2, the Hawthorne effect indicates that employees will perform better when they receive special attention, believe they are being observed or think management is concerned about their welfare. View the video which summarizes this hypothesis and also offers a modern-day example from a clothing factory in India.

Do you think the conclusions from this research in India indicate something universal that could be applied to factory workers everywhere? What about the applicability to other kinds of jobs, such as office workers? What about other fields, such as medicine, technology, transportation or entertainment?

In whatever kind of work setting, you might consider that this theory seems relevant, perhaps all of them, would the decision about which kinds of tasks were simple, and which ones were complex, be the key to the successful use of the Hawthorne Effect in real-life situations in the 21^stCentury?

Transcript