Hawthorne effect

Definition

Observation that employee motivation is affected as much or more by recognition and show of concern, as it is by improvements in their work conditions. Observed by the US productivity researcher George Elton Mayo (1810-1949), during 1927 to 1933 at the Hawthorne (Illinois) plant of Western Electric company (where he was assessing the effects of lighting conditions). He reported that the worker performance went up and up whether the lighting was good or bad, because (presumably) workers were responding to the management's show of concern for their problems. This study was later severely criticized as too skimpy and unscientific to be of any practical value.