Management and Organization: Hawthorne Studies Review and Evaluation

This essay provides a comprehensive review of the Hawthorne Studies, a pivotal set of investigations conducted in the late 1920s. It delves into the illumination experiment, a key component of the studies, which aimed to determine the impact of lighting on worker productivity. The essay highlights the unexpected findings, where both the experimental and control groups experienced increased productivity, leading to the identification of the Hawthorne effect—the phenomenon where individuals alter their behavior due to the awareness of being observed. Furthermore, the paper discusses the implications of these findings for management and organizational behavior in a global environment, emphasizing the importance of communication, supervision, and the potential limitations of the studies, such as their susceptibility to biases and the need for long-term strategies. The essay concludes by summarizing the studies' contributions and acknowledging their limitations.

MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION-HAWTHORNE STUDIES REVIEW 1
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION-HAWTHORNE STUDIES REVIEW
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MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONS IN A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
Introduction
Management and organization in a global environment entail designing, organizing,
directing, and controlling of resources over long distances, and diverse societies. Moreover, in
this consistently changing environment, the manager should know allure, maintain, and promote
an assorted workforce. In the late 1920s, managers at Hawthorne Works, - a prominent
manufacturer based in Illinois wanted to know if their representatives are more productive in a
sufficiently illuminated condition than they are in a poorly illuminated environment. The
discovery was truly the start of the spring of transition of quality in America. This paper
discusses the application of illumination experiment and the Hawthorne effect on the above
topic.
Since management and organizations in a global environment require recognition of the
benefits that come from recognizing the factors that drive change, Hawthorne workers came up
with an evidenced idea that illumination affects the productivity of employees. With the end goal
of advancing offers of lights, the General Electric Company began to do the illumination
experiments which were aimed at exhibiting the positive connection between the strength of
lighting and productivity of laborers (Schermerhorn, 2013, p. 24) (Wren & Bedeian, 2009, p.
12). The specialists established a trial group and later formed a control group which was
compared with the trial group. The intensity of illumination in the trial group varied according to
the researchers plan while it was steady in the control gathering. Be that as it may, to the
analysts' shock, productivity increased in both groups. In summation, when workers in an
organization work in an environment with the better lighting they are bound to work more
efficiently which improves productivity but it also short-term (Schlagheck & Lantz, 2014, p. 6).
In a global organization environment, managers should be in a position to utilize
communication strategies that are effective to control diversity in the workplace. Hawthorne
studies show that people are affected by communication from managers even the non-verbal
ones. Hawthorne Effect, a well-known term identified with brain science and sociology, alludes
to "the adjustment in behavior by trial subjects that emerges from their mindfulness that they are
participating in an examination." Hawthorne Effect in a workplace arises when workers fail to

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perform because a manager has withdrawn supervision and attention for a given time. According
to the Hawthorne studies, when employees are supervised; their consciousness tells them that
they have to perform but when not supervised they seem to underperform. It is important to note
that illumination experiment arises from Hawthorne Effect where at some point; it was proven to
be ineffective because organization management needs long-term strategies. However, the
Hawthorne experiment is short-term and therefore, provides results that cannot be relied on in
the long run. (Garvin, 2011, p. 26). In summation, based on the Hawthorne findings managers
should make sure that workers are always supervised to perform.
The findings in the Hawthorne studies brings in weaknesses that should be addressed.
This a supported by the fact that the Hawthorne Studies as much as they were esteemed they had
some flaws. The heterogeneity of these studies means that little can be assertively inferred about
the extent of these impacts. For example, the conditions under which they work and their
mechanisms do not portray favorable working environment for all workers in the organizational
setup. Another defect is that these findings are prone to biases because of the minimal
development of the study of the issues presented by the Hawthorne studies. Hawthorne studies
have not led to notable research advances in the topic discussed in this paper. In short,
Hawthorne studies are not as reliable as they may seem (Schlagheck & Lantz, 2014, p. 8).
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Hawthorne studies have brought to our attention empirical findings such as
the illumination experiment which comes from the Hawthorne Effect. However, they have
proved to be having room for biases, limited research advancements and the size of impact
created is very minimal although it has shown how best one can utilize evidenced research,
practically.

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References
Garvin, P., 2011. Government information management in the 21st century: international
perspectives. English ed. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Publisher.
Schermerhorn, J. R., 2013. Management. 12th ed. Hoboken NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Schlagheck, D. & Lantz, C., 2014. Hawthorne Works. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia
Publishing.
Wren, D. A. & Bedeian, A. G., 2009. The evolution of management thought. 6th ed. Hoboken:
Wiley, distributor.