The Hawthorne Effect
What Is The Hawthorne Effect?
The Hawthorne Effect refers to the way that workplace efficiency, performance and productivity can often be improved by introducing and measuring any change to working practice. It doesn't matter whether you change from System A to System B or from System B to System A: productivity could well go up!The ususal explanation is that the Hawthorne Effect is akin to a placebo; workers feel motivated as a result of the experiment itself. They feel that they are being listened to, they feel valued and they bind better as a social unit producing a new group dynamic. In addition there is an element of "a change is as good as a rest".
The result of the Effect need not be positive. If an efficiency study is taking place without the goodwill of the workforce and under threat of redundancy then they might have a subconscious desire for it to fail.
As stated earlier, there is some dispute as to the nature and strength of any specific Hawthorne Efect. By its nature it is difficult to quantify and predict - some people even claim that it doesn't exist at all. However there does seem to be some degree of "observer effect" that could confound attempts to study business efficiency improvements.
Ultimately the Hawthorne Effect can perhaps be summed up by one simple but too frequently forgotten fact: workers are human.
Beyond the Workplace
The Hawthorne Effect has been invoked far beyond its original scope as as workplace efficiency phenomenom. It has been used to explain unexpected results in all manner of scenarios as diverse as education, user interface design and treatment for stuttering.Although the Hawthorne Effect is usually seen as unwanted - introducing a bias into experiments - it can potentially be harnessed positively to allow workers/customers/patients to feel better about their treatment.