Hawthorne Effect

Hawthorne Effect

Last week, we learned several management theories. Among them, Hawthorne effects interested me a lot. After learning from seminar and searching in book, I have the following gains.

effects commonly refer to as observer effect, which points that when people realize that they are being observed they will improve or modify an aspect of their behavior. This also pointed the importance of human relation in an organization.

After four stages of experiments, researchers got some conclusions.

First, they proved that we should focus on human relation and psychology to motivate employees but not only money. Second, the experiments proved that the key point of working efficiency is enthusiasm and human relations in family and society. Third, they conclude that money is just a small part of factor of motivation; people need more sense of belonging, sense of security and harmony. So modern manager should have the abilities to improve the satisfaction of employees, be good at listen to employee’s opinions. In addition, they pointed that there are small informal organizations into a company. These kinds of informal organizations aim to protect mutual benefits of members, which avoid from individual mistakes to affect organization’s benefits.

We also can reflect this effect into our life that we need to praise others more, because it will make them feel good in psychology and be a motivation for them. In my experience, when we realize that we are being concerned we will be motivated to performed better, thereby be more efficient. Therefore, we should behave ourselves and then get more praises, which will make us confident and study better.

Thanks Rob.