Question

In the 1930s, industrial psychologist Elton Mayo was commissioned to perform a series of experiments at Western Electric Hawthorne plant. These are known as the "Hawthorne Studies," designed to observe worker performance and output levels in varying illumination conditions. The so-called Hawthorne or Observer Effect has led to many organizational theories, which were advanced to understand, explain, and predict worker behaviors.

Research and discuss the Hawthorne experiments and their relevance to organizations today. Afterward, compare the Hawthorne Effect with the modern-day practice of Micromanagement. What are their benefits and criticisms? How can managers apply these concepts to improve worker performance?

Your Discussion posts should be a minimum of 350 words in length and not more than 750 words. Use APA citations and references for any sources used.

Answer 1

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Studies in Hawthorne is a series of studies on the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company, carried out between 1924 and 1932. During these tests, the lighting has been changed to reflect behavior or productivity improvements. Their efficiency improved every time the lighting was changed. In order to determine the positive effects on productivity, they were put on different working conditions such as breaks, business days and working weeks. Again, with increasing shift, their efficiency improved. Researchers could not determine the pattern of specific changes which predicted results; but they realized that the workers were not affected by the change of conditions but by the productivity. This was called the Hawthorne effect, a form of reactivity in which people change their actions when they are conscious. Since these studies have been performed several decades ago, their findings are based on the concepts used in both management and coaching courses. Perhaps the most successful and least influential finding from these studies is that the leaders of workers and efficiency have to spend their resources clearly and honestly by paying attention to their teams.

The type of management in which a manager monitors or manages closely the job of subordinates or workers is micromanagement. Internal, characteristics of the managing director are the key reasons for micromanagement: detail-orientedness, emotional anxiety and concerns regarding employee's competence. In Hawthorne, the productivity of the experiment is influenced by the informal community that shaped the workers. When researchers adjusted their working conditions such as well-lit rooms, resting breaks, working hours, and so on, productivity improved. Micromanagement, however, hampers efficiency. Continuous supervision and frequent tweaks and feedback decreases efficiency. Employees must slow down their work in order for their workflow to be processed and carried out continuously. This may also lead you to determine your ability to carry out tasks separately.

The experiment at Hawthorne indicated that workers are more pleased. The study emphasized that skills are bad predictors of work results. It found that money or salaries paid to them are not the only productivity measure but a function of job satisfaction. Employees who think their employers are less happy with their work because they don't feel motivated and comfortable. The workers do not execute tasks exactly according to the requirements of the boss, even though the results may be perfectly satisfactory. In order to achieve two ways efficient contact, involvement is a major factor in the relationship with humans. This is usually lacking in micro management because employees are dissatisfied with their supervisors, who keep them under intense control. The experiment in Hawthorne ensures that employees can enter into healthy competition by using team groups, as well as the micro-management processes which enable employees to finish work before deadlines.

There is however risk in excess. Indeed, “micromanagement is a style of employee oversight characterized by excessive observation and control”. Although being observed has proven to have a positive effect on productivity, being overly monitored and directed tends to instill a feeling of lack of trust in the employee’s abilities and a feeling of being stifled. This results often in the opposite effect and decreases productivity and creativity.

It is important for today’s leaders to provide their employees with healthy attention without falling in the extreme of micromanagement hence jeopardizing employee productivity and results.

References:

Niygena, M. M. M. (2019). Effects of Operational Change on Employee Performance in Startup Companies in Kenya–A Case of Brand Design Development Limited (Doctoral dissertation, United States International University-Africa).

Usunier, N., Synnaeve, G., Lin, Z., & Chintala, S. (2016). Episodic exploration for deep deterministic policies: An application to starcraft micromanagement tasks. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.02993.