Greetings all, my name is Stephen Lentz and today we're going to talk about a little precursor to training within industry in this video called A brief history of TWI, the Hawthorne effect. It all begins in a small town of Cicero, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Back in 1924, the National Academy of Science had commissioned Western Electric to host an experiment at their Hawthorne Works facility, where they manufactured telephone equipment.
The purpose of this experiment was to identify if there was any relationship between a worker's productivity and their environment. The most notable aspect of the experiment was trying to determine if the level of lighting in the factory would help improve production. The conductors of the experiment increased the lighting and, with a little help from the managers and supervisors, began interviewing people on the shop floor to determine if their work conditions improved. Sure enough, there was a large increase in production during the time of the study. But in true scientific fashion, the researchers decided to proof out these results by reducing the amount of lighting to see if production would decline back.
To their surprise, production had actually increased yet again. The National Academy of Science had then called off the study because they felt it proved nothing. Western Electric, however, decided to dig deeper in the study and find the real cause. They used the same interviewing format that they had used during the initial study. They focused on relay making, using only a small group of women to continue the study.
As the experiment went on, they found an increase of 30% in output in relay making. This began the first employee interviewing program for employees to discuss how they felt about their jobs, their supervisors, working conditions, and so on. They realized that people were more productive if they felt that their immediate supervisor was concerned about the conditions of their workplace. Ultimately, if they felt they actually cared. Word spread about the Hawthorne effect and how participation from management and leaders on the floor would help increase production.
Other researchers and managers have tried to replicate this Hawthorne effect and were unsuccessful in the results. Because of this, many still question the validity of the Hawthorne experiment. A common misconception of the results is that people will be more productive if they feel they are being watched.
One of the aspects of the Hawthorne effect that people miss out on is the specific criteria that was required for this experiment. It wasn't enough for a supervisor to just be present or visible. For one thing, supervisors were asking employees for feedback. This feedback naturally resulted in improvements or issues coming to the surface. Changes in routines were openly discussed with the employees.
Workers began to view their supervisors as equals, in the way that they would be involved in the work, would listen to their ideas, and help give them a voice. I hope you have enjoyed this video. Please like, share and subscribe. And also, don't forget to click on the bell to get notifications on new videos or updates. If you have any questions or would like me to explore other aspects of TWI, lean or overall continuous improvement, please leave it in the comments below.
And I hope that you stay safe, have fun and rock on!