Would you like to raise productivity? Don't implement a "top-down" initiative. That's the simple finding from this Study of more than seven decades ago.
From 1927 to 1932, several professors from Harvard Business School, began studying organizational and social systems at the Hawthorne Western Electric (AT&T's manufacturing arm) plant in Cicero, Illinois. The Study was only supposed to last one year, but...it got complicated. And, was extended.
This Study was one of the first "management science" gifts given to us by the stable business model of AT&T back then: regulation did produce consistency and predictability which allowed for studies like this one.
Anyway, what did they do and what did they find? First, they asked a small group of employees about ways to improve productivity and efficiency. The workers were delighted to talk to the researchers: they got a boatload of possible changes to the workplace: more than they could implement.
Humidity. Lighting. Breaks. Work group behaviors. These, and other, of subjects got covered.
No matter what they tested -- increased lightning; decreased lighting -- there was a positive effect. Production went up.
Why? The researchers ascribed it to the process of the workers being asked. And, of course, the researchers listening and acting on the information. (This is quite similar to another similar phenomenon called "School Belonging.")
Would you like to increase productivity and reduce anxiety in your organization? Just ask a few questions and implement a few of the ideas that come out. Magic.
BTW, here are the major Findings from the Study:
- The aptitudes of individuals are imperfect predictors of job performance. Although they give some indication of the physical and mental potential of the individual, the amount produced is strongly influenced by social factors.
- Informal organization affects productivity. The Hawthorne researchers discovered a group life among the workers. The studies also showed that the relations that supervisors develop with workers tend to influence the manner in which the workers carry out directives.
- Work-group norms affect productivity. The Hawthorne researchers were not the first to recognize that work groups tend to arrive at norms of what is "a fair day's work," however, they provided the best systematic description and interpretation of this phenomenon.
- The workplace is a social system. The Hawthorne researchers came to view the workplace as a social system made up of interdependent parts.
Copyright 1999 by Donald Clark










