The Hawthorne Experiments

The Hawthorne Experiments

The Hawthorne experiments were groundbreaking studies in human relations that were conducted

between 1924 and 1932 at Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in Chicago. Originally

designed as illumination studies to determine the relationship between lighting and

productivity, the initial tests were sponsored by the National Research Council (NRC) of the

National Academy of Sciences. In 1927 a research team from the Harvard Business School was

invited to join the studies after the illumination tests drew unanticipated results. Two additional series of

tests, the relay-assembly tests and the bank-wiring tests, followed the illumination tests. The studies

assumed the label Hawthorne experiments or studies from the location of the Western Electric plant.

Concluded by 1932, the Hawthorne studies, with emphasis on a new interpretation of group behavior,

were the basis for the school of human relations.

ILLUMINATION TESTS

In the early 1920s Chicago's Western Electric Hawthorne Works employed 12,000 workers. The plant

was a primary manufacturer of telephones, and in 1924 the company provided a site to cooperate with

the NRC on a series of test room studies to determine the relationship between illumination and worker

efficiency. The basic idea was to vary and record levels of illumination in a test room with the

expectation that as lighting was increased, productivity would too. In another test room, illumination was

decreased, with the correlating expectation that efficiency would decrease. The electric power industry

provided an additional impetus for these tests, hoping to encourage industries to use artificial lighting in

place of natural light. The Illuminating Engineering Society's Committee on Research also supported the

tests and cooperated with the NRC. From the fall of 1924 to the spring of 1927, three series of tests

were conducted and carefully monitored. Three departments at the Hawthorne plant were involved--

relay assembling, coil winding, and inspection. Workers were notified of the tests in order to attempt to

control