Hawthorne Effect

Published February 2000

A term generally used to describe an improvement in worker productivity that arises when the worker's environment is changed experimentally, even if the change is for the worse. The idea behind the Hawthorne effect is that experimentation, per se, conveys a message that management is vitally interested in its employees and that this message alone can stimulate improved performance. From 1927 to 1932, Mayo and Roethlisberger experimented with lighting levels at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant in Chicago. They found that worker performance increased with every change in the lighting level, even when the change was to reduce illumination. This unexpected result has been attributed to the change in worker attitudes resulting from simple human attention. The significant implication of the Hawthorne experiment is that one should not rely on early productivity and worker satisfaction measurements when trying to assess the true impact of changes to a given work environment.