THE BASICS 5: THE HAWTHORNE STUDIES

The next episode in most handbooks is then the introduction of work in a social context; slowly moving away from the rational “scientific” approach of Taylorism and towards a more psychological approach: the employee as a social human being.

One of the most influential research projects which lead to this shift were the so-called Hawthorne Studies, named after a large production site of the Western Electric Company in Chicago, and which took place between 1924 and 1932.  The results of the study were not published before 1939 though.

A fascinating video from the AT&T archives (former Western Electric) on youtube.com (copyright by ATTTechChannel)

Originally they were a study in the tradition of the taylorist approach; to examine the effects of the length of working hours, the length and frequency of work breaks and the effects of illumination on the productivity.

Especially the results on the effect of illumination were quite surprising. From the present point of view one would expect a brighter work environment would raise motivation and productivity, but in the Hawthorne studies even less light, even to the level of a moonlit night, raised productivity of the experimental group.  How could that be ?

This was a difficult one to explain. In several follow-up experiments in which a small group of female workers were isolated and were then put under several working conditions different from that of the main body of workers. They experimented with working hours, light and so on; every time the working conditions changed productivity went up – even when working conditions were less positive. Absenteeism and sickness were also considerable lower in the experimental group.

Researchers concluded that the manipulated conditions could not be responsible for the increase of productivity. It had to be something else. Actually it proved to be the special attention the members of the experimental group received as a group; they felt special and researchers were paying attention to what they were doing. A new experience for them.

Later this effect became known as the Hawthorne-effect: the behaviour of people is influenced by the fact that they know that they are being researched and their interpretation of what is happening around them.

Another Hawthorne study researched the effect of economic rewards on productivity; this took place by observing a group of men which produced a telephone apparatus. This study showed that there are social norms within the group, especially on what is a fair level of production of the group. Employees that did more or less than what they were “supposed” to do, were forced to comply with these social norms. It also showed that there were informal groups within the group.

It proved to be possible to raise production by giving employees a voice to air their complaints on the working conditions and by giving them the impression that they were taken seriously.

And  a new movement was born: Human Relations. Also the start of personnel work. In the next version of the Basics: the Human Relations movement.

M

A CAREER LIKE AN INTERCITY (OR THE LOCAL STEAMTRAIN …)

At one point in my life I compared my career with a journey in a train and, now I think back,  it was actually a very good comparison (I like metaphors!). So what is this metaphor ?

For those who are not familiar with the train-system in the Netherlands, and this is I suppose the majority of my readers, first a small explanation of the layout. As a kid I lived in the east of the Netherlands and if you wanted to go by train to the west of the country you had to board an intercity train which was halfway,  in Amersfoort,  split into one part going to Amsterdam and one going to Utrecht and The Hague (the yellow line in the map).

Imagine now that the yellow line is your life and Amersfoort symbolizes the moment in which you chose a career, let’s say when you are 18. Now you did not pay attention to what the announcer in the train said about the split up and you made no conscious choice on where you want to go. You  find yourself in the part going to Amsterdam because you wanted to go to Amsterdam because it somehow appealed to you, because your family expected you to go there or someone told you that The Hague was awful and a tough job to survive.

So you are sitting in the part going to Amsterdam and you talk to fellow passengers and you are starting to think about where you are going. You start to doubt your decision and after a few minutes more you, deep down, decide you want to go The Hague after all. What to do ?

Actually you can choose between 3 options:

• pull the emergency brake, get out and then decide how to proceed; you might find yourself in the middle of a field and it takes you a long time and effort to find a bus or train to proceed in the direction of The Hague;
• ask the train conductor what to do ? is it possible to change trains ? it takes some extra travel time to get to The Hague, but eventually you get there;
• you decide in the end to continue your journey to Amsterdam – too much trouble to change trains and it takes too much time, money and effort – maybe Amsterdam is also nice;

Use your imagination – you will see the metaphors. There is no best way; it all boils down to the spur of the moment, the people you meet, the history you brought with you, your motivation, your personality traits, the economy (which can slow the train down or even bring it to a standstill)  – for everyone this is different. There is no clearcut answers; everyone has to find his own way. But there is help; you can clarify what you want, you can ask people to help you to reach a decision and there are people on your way who can help you along. Use their expertise and wisdom; people in general are willing to help !!

M

THE BASICS 2: WHAT IS WORK ?

I can hear you think: Marc, come on, we know what work is. That is what we did each day for the last two, five, ten, twenty years or as long as we can remember ! It might not be as simple as that. Everyone has his or her own views of what should be brought under the definition of ‘work’.

You can use the notion of ‘work’ or ‘labour’ in a narrow sense or in a broad sense. If you use a narrow interpretation ‘work’ is the same as paid labour. I give you my time and my capacity for work and you give me monetary payment and/or other benefits. But is it fair to limit work / labour to paid labour. For example if I bake a cake for my neighbours at home it is not seen as work, but if I am a baker and I bake a cake and sell it to my neighbours in my shop it is seen as work. Or another example: if a grandmother looks after her grandchildren while their parents are at work it is not seen as work, but if the children are left at a childcare center for the day it is seen as work. Is that fair or is the line rather arbitrarily drawn ?

You can also use a broad sense of the notion of ‘work’ or ‘labour’. Payment in any form is no longer at the center of the discussion, but whether a specific mental or physical activity fulfils a personal need. This very broad definition can lead to bizarre results: almost all human activities fulfil a need, for example also robbing a bank, playing tennis or sex. By the way, in some cases sex can legitimately be seen as ‘labour’ though, but that is a whole different story.

So maybe you should end up somewhere in the middle: it might be helpful to stretch the personal need by adding that the mental or physical activity should not only fulfil a personal need but also be of value for others and/or the society in general. This definition will not lead to perfect clarity (how many others for example ?) but in general would exclude some activities, like robbing a bank, playing tennis or sex. And value has to be interpreted broader as including services, goods etc.

So like with anything that seems simple, if you think about it, you have several questions, categories, definitions. In the case of ‘work’ you can make a distinction between paid and non-paid activities, formal and informal types of work (informal being the “black economy”), activities only for yourself or for others/ the society as a whole. How to make life complicated !

Stay tuned for part 3 of The Basics next week: scientific management / Taylorism (we dive into history);

M

THE BASICS 1: WORK PSYCHOLOGY AS APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

In this series, which starts today, I will go into the basics of the study of the area of psychology, which deals with behaviour, experiences, thoughts, feelings of individuals or groups at work: industrial/organisational psychology or work psychology. There you have your first problem: how to call this form of applied psychology ? As I understood they use in the USA “industrial/organisational psychology”, in the UK “work psychology” and in Europe “work psychology” (translated from the different languages). It is more or less the same.

Also important to note that work psychology is not a form of basic psychology, as there are physiological psychology, social psychology, personality psychology, cognitive psychology and developmental psychology. Work psychology uses theories and concepts from all these areas and applies it to work settings. And this leads to even more specific theories, concepts, practices, processes, instruments and what have you. These can then be directly applied to practical problems in work situations.

There always has been a tension between applied psychology and areas of basic psychology: in general it boils down to basic psychology is “too theoretical” and applied psychology is “too practical”. But it is important to keep communication open to ensure that valuable information on the application of for example social psychology theories gets back to the drawing board and may lead to support or adjustments of existing theories or the development of new theories.  Both sides have their own role to play.

next week the basics 2: What is work ?

M