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Industrial psychology insight paper
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This essay is going to explain about the contemporary management function and the employee-employer relationship by using Hawthorne studies and explain about the experiments he did, and will discuss about Hawthorne's studies and some articles that will be mention in this essay. In the industrial history, Hawthorne studies are one of the most famous studies which benefits every studies in the industrial social studies later on. The experiments were undertaken at Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in Chicago, Illinois during 1924 to 1932 (Robbins & Judge, 2007), the experiments was to study the relationship between workplace's light and worker's productivity. As a result, Hawthorne and his team found out that the results were ambiguous and there are something beyond those factors. They decided to shifted the focus from light towards the fatigue of the workers. The Hawthorne studies cited that workers will act according to their emotions, this can be said that workers tend to hang around other workers. Also, Hawthorne studies key point can be said that when people have been treated with respect in their peer-group and have their sense of belonging in their peer-group, they will try to meet other people's expectation thus will benefits both manager and the employee themselves.
Firstly, Hawthorne studies shows that money is not the only motivator for the workers, people can work for social factors instead of money. Robbins and Judge (2007) showed us the information that in the year 1924, Hawthorne studies was originally intended to promote sales of their light bulbs, the Western Electric Company wants to demonstrating about the positive relationship about intensity of light and the productivity of workers. Gale (2004) say th...
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...an be called one of the most contribution piece ever experimented.
Works Cited
Bramel, D.(1981) Hawthorne, the Myth of the Docile Worker, and Class Bias in Psychology, American Psychologist, 36(8) pp. 867 - 878.
Gale, E. (2004) The Hawthorne studies-a fable for our times? Journal of QJM vol. 97 no. 7.
Greenwood.R (2004) Employee Privacy Issues of the Early 20th Century,97.
Muldoon,J. (2012) The Hawthorne Lagacy Journal of Management Theory,181.1,105-119
McQuarrie.F (2005) How the past is present(ed) A comparison of information on the hawthorne studies in Canadian Management and Organizational behaviour.
Jones.M (2008) Becoming a Management Legend by Making History through the Hawthorne Studies: A conversation with Alfred A.Bolton,13.1,101-108.
Robbins, S. P. and Judge, T. A. (2007) Organizational Behaviour. 12th Edition. USA: Pearson Education International Press.
Langton, Nancy, Stephen Robbins, and Timothy Judge.Organizational Behaviour: Concepts, Controversies, Applications. Fifth Canadian Edition. Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2009. 141, 574-84. Print.
Life experiences, upbringing and interactions with fellow individuals affect the person’s outlook on life in general as well as their perception of reality. Authors, poets and writers in possess a talent to describe these experiences through an art form they explicitly excel in. Hawthorne is a
Kaul, A. N., Ed.. "HAWTHORNE: A Collection of Critical Essays." Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1966.
Stoehr, Taylor. Hawthorne's Mad Scientists: Pseudoscience and Social Science in Nineteenth Century Life and Letters. Hamden: Archon Books, 1978.
Lang, H.J.. “How Ambiguous Is Hawthorne.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Kaul, A.N. “Introduction.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
McShane, S.L., Olekalns, M. & Travaglione, A. 2013, Organizational Behavior: Emerging Knowledge, Global Insights 4th ed., McGraw-Hill, Sydney.
Lang, H.J.. “How Ambiguous is Hawthorne?” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Lang, H.J. “How Ambiguous is Hawthorne?” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Mullins, L. J. (2005). Management and organizational behavior (7th ed.). Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.
Robbins , Stephen P. and Judge, Timothy, A. Organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice Hall. Pearson Custom Publishing. 2008 Print
Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A., (2004). Organizational Behavior (6th ed.). New York: McGraw- Hill/Irwin. pp. 406- 441.
Since the end of the 19th century, when factory manufacturing became widespread and the size of organisations increased, people have been looking for ways to motivate employees and improve productivity. A need for management ideas arise which lead to classical contributors such as Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol generating management theories such as Taylor’ Scientific Management and Fayol’s Administrative Management. In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s the Hawthorne studies were conducted where Elton Mayo was the predominate figure and contributed to the Behavioural viewpoint. This brought about a Human Relations Movement which included Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y approach. Similarities and differences can be found between the theories due to the relevant time period they were implemented, the motives or goal of the theory and how they view organisations. However the use of contingency theory can help negate the dissimilarities which occur as it allows the relevant elements from each theory to be applied to specific situations.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organizational behavior (14 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
By conducting the Hawthorne studies, various assumptions were discovered. A person's work behaviour is not easily determined as a cause and effect relationship; however it is determined by a complex set of attributes. Informal groups that were present in the organisation form a social structure which was preserved through job related symbols of prestige and power. Change in the organisation can be avoided by being more aware of the employees' sentiments and their participation. The findings of the experiments led to the discovery that the workplace is a close knit social system and not just a production system.