Hawthorne Effect & Placebos

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Outline on the Hawthorne Effect & Placebos

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Summary: The Hawthorne Studies began in 1924 at the Hawthorne Works of the West Electric Co. near Cicero, IL, & were conducted under auspices the National Research Council under the lead researcher, Elton Mayo. The objectives were to examine the effect of illumination on output. After 2.5 yrs. & many experiments, researchers could see no effect because output in both control & experimental groups had increased because the effect of being studied impacted the research subjects. But ultimately the research found that wkrs are socially motivated as well as economically motivated, & that it is the wkrs control the pace of the wk

THE HAWTHORNE EFFECT OCCURS WHEN WKRS REACT TO BEING STUDIED BY PLEASING THE RESEARCHER, & THAT WKRS CONTROL THE PACE OF WORK, & AS CONCERNED W/ SOCIAL AS WELL AS ECON INCENTIVES

Reactivity is the tendency of people being studied by social scientists to react to the researcher or to the fact that they are being studied

The Hawthorne Effect (HE) is a form of reactivity

In the Hawthorne Studies, the wkrs being studied in the General Electric Hawthorne Plant Motor Wiring Room attempted to please the researchers because they always attempted to please / appease authority figures on the job

Many researchers believe the research was affected by patriarchy & gender issues in that all the wkrs were women & all the researchers were men

The concept of the Hawthorne Effect, which was developed during the Hawthorne Studies, holds that added social attention to workers will increase their productivity

People in some parts of the Hawthorne Studies found that the people being studied attempt to please the researcher

THE PLACEBO EFFECT (PE) IS A FORM OF REACTIVITY WHEREBY PEOPLE REACT AS A RESULT OF BEING STUDIED, WHEN IN FACT NOTHING HAS CHANGED

A placebo is a false or phony treatment designed to differentiate btwn changes due to real treatment & "imagined" treatment

A placebo is a thing or treatment given by researchers that can provide remedy because subjects believe that their condition is being treated

The PE is widely known in medical studies because even groups who receive sugar pills instead of medicine often show improvement

The HE & the PE are very similar except the HE is often, at some level, consciously chosen whereas the PE is never consciously chosen

THE HAWTHORNE STUDIES AT FIRST FOUND NOTHING & THEN DISCOVERED THE PLACEBO / REACTIVITY OF THE WKRS, THAT THE WKRS CONTROLLED THE PACE OF THE WK, & THAT WKRS ARE SUBJECT TO SOCIAL & ECON FACTORS IN THE WKPLACE

At the GE Hawthorne plant, Elton Mayo & team of young male researchers studied effect of change in light level at the Hawthorne motor wire winding plant where the wkrs were mostly young women

At first the researchers were confused because productivity increased whenever any change occurred at wkplace, but they eventually discovered that the wkrs controlled the pace of the work & were motivated by social factors & not only econ factors as the classic mgt theory of the era held

Because of Mayo's research, the concept of the 'economic person' was replaced by the 'social person' in that people seek more from wk than money

One of the most important findings was that the pace of work was set by the wkrs

Mayo & other researchers came to the realization that pace is informally set by wkrs via social relations of production; mgt efforts are secondary, wkrs resist

Wkrs have labels such as rate buster, shrimp, slave, speed king, brown noser which they give to sanction wkrs who work too fast

Wkrs have labels such as slug, ghost, gold-bricker, slacker which they give to sanction wkrs who work too slow

During the Hawthorne Studies the HE was serendipitously discovered through dogged research

The Hawthorne Studies lasted several years & applied different treatments in different settings

One of the dynamics of the study was that the Motor Wiring Room was mostly staffed by young women while the researchers were all young "college men"

THE HAWTHORNE STUDIES WENT THROUGH 4 PHASES WHERE THEY FOUND: 1. INCONSISTENCIES, 2. THE PLACEBO / REACTIVITY EFFECT, 3. PACE SET BY THE WKRS, 4. WKRS WERE SUBJECT TO SOCIAL AS WELL AS ECON CONTROL

The focus of the study was an examination of the effect of illumination on the workplace; i.e., what was the optimal level of lighting for factory work

The findings of the Hawthorne Studies were found serendipitously through the FOUR phases of the study over several years

DURING PHASE 1, THE RESEARCHERS NOTED SOME INCONSISTENT DATA

The Hawthorne studies began in 1924 at Hawthorne Works of the West Electric Co near Cicero, IL

The original objectives were to examine effect of illumination on output

After 2.5 yrs & many experiments, could see no effect because output in both the control & the exp grps had increased!

PHASE 2 WAS A REVISITATION OF THE RESEARCH & THUS THE PLACEBO EFFECT / REACTIVITY OF THE WKRS WAS FOUND

During Phase 2, the researchers found that productivity increased regardless of whether illumination was increased or decreased

Productivity increased regardless of environmental changes in wkplace

To determine the cause of these changes in output, the researchers isolated small grps of wkrs for close observation

The observers, college males in lab coats, observed isolated small groups of workers, who were mostly young women

The women were told to ignore the researchers & work at their regular pace

The women & the men interacted

The researchers wondered if other factors were intervening, so they introduced hot lunches, rest periods, days off, Saturdays work, longer hrs., shorter hrs., high fatigue, etc.

When the researchers introduced & controlled various other factors in the workplace, output rose & stayed high!

There was no easily identified relationship btwn productivity & changes in the work environment

The impact on productivity seemed to lie more w/ social factors than w/ anything else

It was through intensive interviews that Roethlisberger discovered that the women were deliberately increasing productivity because of the intense observation, & the nature of the observers, that they were experiencing

The Hawthorne Studies revealed that the workers were reacting to being observed & that at some level, this reaction was conscious or deliberate

Ultimately as a result of revisiting the research which originally showed inconsistent data, Mayo found that the wkrs were reacting to being studied; they were doing whatever it took to please the researchers, thus revealing the concept of reactivity / the placebo effect in social research

In the later phases of the Hawthorne Studies, it was found that workers develop norms & organizational culture which impact, among other things, work pace

PHASE 3 FOUND THAT OUTPUT WAS DETERMINED BY THE GRP, OR EVEN AN INDIVIDUAL OR INDIVIDUALS W/IN THE GRP

Roethlisberger & Mayo conducted 20,000 interviews where they found that people tended to give standard, stereotyped answers to direct questions

Because of what he thought were standard answers, Roethlisberger utilized a non direct approach w/ fewer in depth interviews & observation

Through in depth interviews & observation, the researchers found that wkrs ( not mgrs ) controlled pace of wk

Wkrs at the GE plant controlled output because they:
a. feared wking themselves out of a job
b. feared mgt might raise standards & then they wouldn't be able to achieve the goal set by mgt
c. could protect low rate / slow wkrs
d. realized mgt accepted the current rate

Mayo & Roethlisberger also found that the wkrs treated different mgrs differently

The wkrs had more respect for top mgrs & particular mid & lower level mgrs whom they thought were fair or good / effective

Mayo & Roethlisberger also found that cliques or subgrps formed in the wkplace including 'games men' & 'job traders' as well as the 'leaders' who informally regulated the wkplace

PHASE 4 FOUND THAT WKRS WERE SUBJECT TO SOCIAL FACTORS / INCENTIVES

The predominant mgt paradigm at that time held that wkrs were motivated solely by econ factors

Roethlisberger & Dickson found that wkrs responded, & created & controlled a variety of non econ or social factors which had as much as or greater effect than the econ factors

Social factors that impacted wkrs were the codes of conduct created by the wkrs

One of the wkrs codes of conduct was a prohibition against rate busters who turn out too much work

Rate busters today might be called everything from brown noser to the more benevolent 'mgt material'

One of the wkrs codes of conduct was a prohibition against chislers who turn out too little work

Chislers today might be called everything from slug to ghost

One of the wkrs codes of conduct was a prohibition against squealers; e.g. those who tell a superior anything that will hurt another wkr or grp

One of the wkrs codes of conduct was a prohibition against stand-off-ish-ness; no one, not even an inspector, should maintain soc distance or act officious

The End

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