HAWTHORNE STUDIES

Hawthorne Studies and Organizational Culture

Hawthorne Studies and Organizational Culture

Introduction

Hawthorne Studies conducted at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant can be considered instrumental in bringing changes in the organizational culture. Previously scientific management brought forward the issues related to efficiency but it ignored the human aspects of the workforce. This study made experts realize that Hawthorne experiments gave employees a feeling of importance. They became involved with the work because they thought they were given importance. The human emotional aspects of workforce come to the fore because of these experiments. These studies became the foundation for evolution of management in general and the culture of the organization.

This paper discusses the Hawthorne Studies and how those studies taught us about the concept of organizational culture.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture, organizational culture, management culture, corporate culture, corporate culture, business or culture, are expressions used to describe a particular concept of culture (which is understood as the set of experiences, habits, customs, beliefs, and values??, characterizes a group of people) applied to a restricted area of organization, institution, government, corporation, company, or business. Organizational culture has several effects on the behavior of its members, firstly, in the process of attraction and selection, thus perpetuating the existing culture even more. It also have effects on the processes of retention and voluntary turnover, so as to be a greater correspondence between the values ??of workers and the organizational culture, the greater the worker's commitment to the organization, and the lower the rate of rotation or voluntary abandonment (Adair, 2009, 334).

Attitudes allow a person to settle in a work condition it may show his ego, values and interpret events. Employee's mood and attitude have a great effect on job satisfaction, according to olcu300; moods and emotions either positive or negative both are related to job satisfaction. Conscious/unconscious exertions by employee to increase or decrease profitability and productivity of business, destructive or constructive mind, harmful or peaceful, these all are the attitudes of employees that directly up or down the satisfaction of a job.

Hawthorne Studies

From 1924 to 1933, a number of research investigations were carried out at the Western Electric Company's Hawthorne plant in Illinois that have become collectively known as the Hawthorne studies. All but the first of these were carried out by a research team led by Elton Mayo of Harvard University. Mayo and his research team were initially interested in how changes in the work environment would impact the productivity of factory workers. These research interests were quite consistent with the prevailing theories of classical management, especially Frederick Taylor's Theory of Scientific Management. That is, like Taylor and other supporters of scientific management, the research team at the Hawthorne plant attempted to discover aspects of the task environment that would maximize worker output and hence improve organizational efficiency (Jones, 1992, 451).

The Hawthorne Studies that were conducted in the 1920's taught us a lot about the concept of organizational culture. The illumination studies were carried out before the Mayo and his team carried out their ...