Perhaps the most famous experiments in motivation took place at the Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne plant in Chicago. Between 1924 and 1932, five sets of tests were carried out in an attempt to understand what made workers assembling telephone equipment more productive.
To begin with the experiments concentrated on improvements to lighting. Productivity indeed improved, but it also improved when the lights were dimmed. This odd result was repeated in experiments which looked at pay, incentives, rest periods, hours of work, and supervision. Mayo advanced two theories. He firstly suggested that the very fact of being involved in an experiment encouraged the workers to be more productive. It created interest and involvement in their repetitive work, and their managers began taking an interest in how they felt. Mayo’s second theory was that social interaction had a critical effect on motivation because the experiment meant bringing workers together in teams with a positive relationship with a supervisor,
In any event it seemed the workers simply appreciated the change the experiments brought about, felt more valued and generally happier and thus their performance improved.
Mayo’s research has come in for much criticism over the years, with many claiming that it was the incentives that the workers were offered to participate that actually caused the increase in productivity. Nevertheless his studies shifted the science of management from Taylor’s engineering approach to a social sciences approach. Almost at once, management became a question of considering motivation, leadership and group dynamics. The human relations approach was born. Managers still had to design jobs, select and train the employees and create a reward structure, but were now also responsible for leading, motivating, communicating and generally monitoring the social setting in which work took place. A change from task focus to people focus which even today many managers find difficult to make.
Had we understood coaching better at the time of the Hawthorne experiments the transition from scientific management would have been easier to make, for coaching is concerned with both tasks and people. It is performance focused, with an intent to take action, make changes and create mobility, but is also person centred in recognising that – in the end – it is people that take action, make changes and become mobile. Creating an appetite for coaching requires us to stress the potential for finding out about oneself as well as finding ways to improve the way that work is carried out.
The phenomenon uncovered by Mayo’s experiments has since been labeled the Hawthorne effect. It has become the scourge of researchers who would prefer to be able to isolate or ignore its effects and explains why much modern research into Human Resource Development (HRD) studiously ignores words such as ‘proof’, ‘fact’ and ’cause’. But the Hawthorne effect can be a boon to managers that coach who – provided their intentions are sincere – can be assured that simply taking a keen interest in the human side of business and work will create a more positive climate and provide the basis for improved results.
Matt Somers is a coaching practitioner of many years’ experience. He works with a host of clients in North East England where his firm is based and throughout the UK and Europe. Matt understands that people are working with their true potential locked away. He shows how coaching provides a simple yet elegant key to this lock. To get your FREE guide “Coaching for an Easier Life” visit www.mattsomers.com
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