GTK: Hawthorne Effect

Here's another first installment of a new series: GTK - Good To Know.

HR Professionals are familiar with many names and concepts, but sometimes it's difficult to remember what something was exactly about. GTK helps refresh the memory with a few bullet points.

Hawthorne Effect

• based on experiments at the Hawthorne Works, 1924-1932
• Elton Mayo was involved in the experiments
• study about the effects of changes of the work environment on worker's productivity
• workers changed their behavior because human beings like feeling important
  
• give your employees special attention, but remember that the effect is only short-term

Sources

• Wikipedia
• 12manage
• Leibniz Universitaet Hannover (glossary)

Inspiration
Cali & Jody wrote about a post on 37signals and somebody mentioned the Hawthorne Effect in the comments.
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