1.5 Significant Research in Organizational Behavior

During the 1920s, at a Western Electric telephone assembly plant in Illinois, company management attempted to better understand the impact of workplace lighting on productivity. Management believed that by increasing the availability of light, worker productivity would improve. Astonishingly, every time management measured the light within a room (whether or not the lighting had been changed), productivity increased.

To better understand what was going on, management hired Professor Elton Mayo to investigate. After investigating the situation, Mayo concluded that no matter what changes were made to the lighting, productivity increased. Both an increase in lighting at the plant and a decrease in lighting at the plant lead to an increase in worker productivity. This finding was the beginning of a twelve-year, four-part study on worker productivity. Mayo’s investigation showed that many of the traditional employees were restricting their output to some unwritten standard. Instead of studying the impact of lighting on employee productivity within the organization, Mayo gradually switched his attention to the attitudes, morale, and social relations of the employees. Mayo’s research provided important insight into informal social structures. Mayo’s research came to be known as the Hawthorne effect.

The main takeaway from the Hawthorne effect is the remarkably energizing effect of simply showing interest and paying attention to employees and colleagues within the organization. Ever since Mayo’s initial studies, researchers have been careful to consider the Hawthorne effect as a possible explanation of research participants' behavior. The more formal name for this effect on individuals is demand characteristics, meaning that the researcher can—even without meaning to—demand that the participant behave in a certain way. The Hawthorne effect also refers to how the social influence of an informal group can determine individual behavior. Mayo's findings that working conditions, satisfaction, and relationships with other workers can all influence employee behavior gave rise to the human relations approach to management, which held that there is no one best way of managing employees.

Motivation

The first motivation theories were developed toward the end of the 1930s. These theories are based on the assumption that behavior is largely determined by immediate needs. Indeed, they show how the various physical, psychological, and social needs of a person will predict behavior. The 1950s saw the development of motivational theory based on the work of Frederick Herzberg, which drew attention to the difference between needs that are satisfied by the external environment (extrinsic needs) and those that are satisfied by inner, upper-level conditions (intrinsic needs).