Chinese name: Hawthorne effect
Mbth: Hawthorne effect
Nickname: the experimenter effect
Expression:? y=？ Ax2+bx+c y= productivity, and x= working environment attribute.
Presenter: george elton mayo.
Date of submission: 1924
Scope of application: factory environment/design/creative industry education/service department
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fundamental principle
The so-called "Hawthorne effect" refers to the tendency of individuals to change their behavior when they realize that they are being observed by others. The experimenter effect in psychology. In the 1920s-1930s, American researchers discovered the experimenter effect, called Hawthorne effect, in the experiment on the relationship among working conditions, social factors and production benefits in Hawthorne factory of Chicago West Electric Power Company. For example, let employees vent their dissatisfaction; An improvement in performance or effort due to extra attention. The basic condition of Hawthorne effect is that important working environment attributes can be captured in large quantities without hidden or obscure information.
In order to better understand Hawthorne effect, it is necessary to master two concepts: yerkes-dodson law and law of diminishing marginal utility. Although incentive factors can indeed improve production efficiency to a certain extent, any incentive factors (such as wages) are not very effective, because there are always moments when their effectiveness is saturated. Therefore, Hawthorne effect cannot be completely expected to improve production efficiency. In addition, it should be supplemented by other technical measures, such as job redesign, job development and cultivating learning organizations.
Create background
Hawthorne experiment: "venting" can obviously improve work efficiency.
What social psychologists call Hawthorne effect is also called catharsis effect.
1924165438+10 In October, a research team headed by Mayo, a psychologist from Harvard University, entered the Hawthorne factory of Westinghouse Electric Company, a branch of American Western Electric Company. Their original intention is to try to find ways to improve labor productivity by improving external factors such as working conditions and environment. They selected six female workers in the relay workshop as the observation objects. In the seven-stage experiment, supporters constantly changed factors such as lighting, salary, rest time, lunch and environment. I hope to find the relationship between these factors and productivity-this is the viewpoint that traditional management theory insists on. But unfortunately, no matter how the external factors change, the production efficiency of the experimental group has not improved.
In order to improve work efficiency, the factory invited various experts, including psychologists, to talk with workers for more than 20,000 times in about two years, patiently listening to workers' opinions and complaints about management, and letting them vent freely. In this way, the working efficiency of Hawthorne factory has been greatly improved. This wonderful phenomenon is called "Hawthorne effect".
After nine years of experiments and research, scholars finally realized that people are not only stimulated by external factors, but also have their own subjective incentives, thus giving birth to the theory of management behavior. As far as Hawthorne's experiment is concerned, when these six female workers were taken out as a group, they realized that they were a special group, the object of the experiment and the object that these experts have been paying attention to. This feeling of attention makes them work harder to prove that they are excellent and worthy of attention.
experimental stage
Hawthorne experiment is based on scientific management logic. From 1924 to 1932, there were two rounds in nearly eight years: the first round was from1924165438+10 to 1927. The second round is 1927 to 1932, hosted by Mayo. The whole experiment has gone through four stages.
Lighting experiment
The purpose of illumination experiment is to understand the influence of illumination intensity on production efficiency. The experiment lasted two and a half years. But the lighting experiment was not successful, and the result was puzzling, so many people quit the experiment.
Welfare experiment
1927, Mayo accepted the invitation, organized a group of professors from Harvard University to set up a new research group, and started Hawthorne's second-stage "welfare experiment".
The purpose of "welfare experiment" is to find out the factors that affect the enthusiasm of employees more effectively. Mayo summed up the experimental results and ruled out four hypotheses:
(1) Improving the material conditions and working methods in the experiment can lead to an increase in output;
(2) arranging rest and shortening the working day can alleviate or alleviate fatigue;
(3) Taking a break can reduce the monotony of work;
(4) Individual piece rate can promote the increase of output.
The final conclusion is:
1. Honor of participating in the experiment: At the beginning of the experiment, six female workers who participated in the experiment were called into the minister's office to talk. They thought it was a great honor. This shows that valued pride can obviously promote people's enthusiasm.
2. Good member relationship: changing the methods of supervision and control can improve interpersonal relationship and workers' working attitude.