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Showing posts with the label Henry A. Landsberger

The Hawthorn Effect and Humanistic Performance Improvements

Focusing on the human elements can help in improving organizational performance. The Hawthorne studies have helped to understand the nature of performance improvement and social expectations within the workplace. The creation of higher effort often requires change and then solidifying that change through new social expectations.   Focusing on people encourages them to perform at higher levels.  The Hawthorne Effect is a concept of reactivity where people improve their performance because they are being singled out and made to feel important and not as a direct result of actual experimental manipulation.   The phenomenon was first experienced at the Bell Telephone Western Electric manufacturing plant in 1924 Chicago by Henry A. Landsberger.   The plant employed over 29,000 people and developed an industrial research center to improve morale and productivity (Brannigan,   & Zwerman, 2001).  The primary benefit of the study is that it furthered the argument that organiza