Was There Really a Hawthorne Effect at the Hawthorne Plant? an Analysis of the Original Illumination Experiments †
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چکیده
When the National Research Council initiated a set of experiments at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Plant in Cicero, IL in 1924, its objective was to answer a narrow question: does better lighting enhance worker productivity? The results of these experiments, however, have had a profound influence on research in the social sciences ever since. According to Ann B. Blalock and Hubert M. Blalock (1982, 72), to the surprise of the researchers, “each time a change was made, worker productivity increased ... . As a final check, the experimenters returned to the original unfavorable conditions of poor lighting ... . Seemingly perversely, productivity continued to rise.” Spurred by these initial findings, a series of experiments were conducted at the plant over the next nine years. New empirical results reinforced the initial findings. Jonathan Freedman, David O. Sears, and J. Merrill Carlsmith (1981,
منابع مشابه
Nber Working Paper Series Was There Really a Hawthorne Effect at the Hawthorne Plant? an Analysis of the Original Illumination Experiments
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