In three pages this report discusses the Hawthorne Studies of employee motivation and productivity in a consideration of the research performed by Elton Mayo and his colleagues between 1927 to 1932 at Chicago's Bell Telephone Western Electric Hawthorne Works. Two sources are cited in the bibliography.
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that were known as the "Hawthorne Studies." Between 1927 and 1932, Mayo researched productivity and working conditions at the Bell Telephone Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago were electrical equipment
was manufactured. Mayo specifically wanted to find out what connections existed between the monotony of a particular task, worker fatigue, morale, and productivity. His findings and the studies that were
inspired by his work eventually earned him the title of "the father of human relations." More important than the individual researcher, however, were his findings and the long-term impact they
have had on the way that Americans, both workers and employers, think about and design the workplace. The Basis of the Hawthorne Studies According to Brannigan and Zwerman (2001):
"The Hawthorne Studies were the single most important investigation of the human dimensions of industrial relations in the early 20th century" (pp. 55). Brannigan and Zwerman go on to explain
that the plant had nearly 30,000 workers and that the number constantly increased until the Great Depression took hold of the plant (pp. 55). What is of special importance, again
according to Brannigan and Zwerman is that: "this kind of growth in highly specialized technological jobs was unprecedented in industrial societies" (pp. 55). As a result, an entirely new way
of thinking had to develop regarding how such workers would be managed and directed. Recognizing the unique situation they were in, the directors of the plant contacted Mayo at
Harvard and Clair Turner, a biology and public health professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers first experimented with the use of artificial lighting which Brannigan and Zwerman
explain was: "... initially designed to determine whether increases in artificial lighting on the factory floor could reduce accidents and eyestrain and thus increase productivity" (pp. 55). It is almost