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Giacalone and Rosenfeld conducted a survey on sabotage. The one weakness of a survey is the social desirability bias.

The study was a quasi-experimental approach when comparing the high reason acceptors with the low reason acceptors and this has yielded useful results.

This study clearly shows how the workplace environment can impact on the individual's behaviours.

The study by Blau is useful in bringing together the concepts of job involvement and organisational commitment.

In allowing organisations to be able to predict potential staff turnover, they are able to plan for this or put measures in place to reduce the risk.

Mowday's measurement of organisational commitment has many useful applications to organisations.

It is a self-report that makes sense as the person is in the best position to know how they feel about the organisation that they work for.

However one might be biased or responding to demand characteristics.

A study conducted in 2001 by Goffin and Gellatly suggested that self-reported measures of commitment showed only a weak correlation with the reports made by others.

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Test-retest scores were good suggesting high reliability

Correlations were high suggesting good validity.

Evidence was also found to support discriminate validity.

Predictive validity was checked to see whether scores on the OCQ would predict how long an employee would stay/how quickly they would leave.

In this individuals with low scores were more likely to leave the organisation.

Significant relationships were found between low organisational commitment and absenteeism and to a lesser extent between commitment and performance.

PROBLEMS WITH THE SCALE

Respondents can easily manipulate their answers to this scale as it is easy to determine  what is being measured.

This is highly likely to happen if people feel that results of any research can be used against them.

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15 item questionaire called the Organisational Commitment Questionaire (OCQ).

Orginally it was designed to measure OC, it is now understood to measure affective commitment.

Administered on 2563 people wokring in a large variety of jobs in 9 different organisations.

Jobs and organisations included public employees working in variety of sectors.

The study was designed to asses a number of aspects of reliability and validity of the scale as well as the scales ability to discriminate.

Mean scores ranged from a low 4 to a high 6.1, suggesting that the scale produces an acceptable level of discrimination.

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It is the attitude that workers have towards the organisation that they work for.
Mowday et.al 1979 defined it as the ' the relative strength of an individual's identification with and involvement in an organisation.

3 types of organisational commitment:

Continuance commitment- workers remain in their post or in the organisation as the costs and risks of leaving would be to great.

Affective commitment - concerns an individual's emotional attachment to the organisation and is where workers remain because they strongly agree with the organisations goals and overall beliefs and views.

Normative commitment- people stay because of pressure from others or a feeling of obligation.

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Two types:
1- Involuntary- when the worker has no choice but to be absent,due to illness or other emergency.
2- Volunatry- when the worker intentionally choose not to attend work and this may be due to dissatisfaction.

STUDY- Blau and Boal(1987)-Used the concepts of job involvement and organisational commitment to predict turnover and absenteeism.
4 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:-
1- High job involvement and high organisational commitment.
2- High job involvement and low organisational commitment.
3- Low job involvement and high organisational commitment.
4- Low job involvement and low organisational commitment.

Each of the groups depict the frequency of individual involvement which in turn has an impact on the absenteeism in the organisation.

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-Participants were both the lists and were asked to rate them individually on a scale of 1(not at all justifiable) to 7(totally justifiable).
- A median split was performed on the potential reasons for sabotage creating two groups- high reason acceptors and low-reason acceptors.

RESULTS
- High reason acceptors justified production slowdowns more than low-reason acceptors.
- High reason acceptors also justified destruction of machinery, premises or products more than low reason acceptors.
- High reason acceptors justified causing chaos more than low reason acceptors.
- High reason acceptors did not justify dishonesty more than low reason acceptors.

CONCLUSION
- Acceptance seems to affect  justification of sabotage in many forms, this is not the case for dishonesty.
- Other forms of sabotage may be aimed at hurting the company, but they do not represent potential monetary gains for the employee.

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WORKPLACE SABOTAGE
It describes behaviours that are designed to break the rules and deliberately try to stop work from taking place.
These behaviours are most commonly the result of dissatisfaction and powerlessness.
STUDY- Giacalone and Rosenfeld(1987);
- Unionised workers in a factory were asked to rate a variety of reasons which would justify the use of sabotage in an organisation, as well as the justifiability of four general methods of sabotage(slowdowns, destructiveness, dishonesty and causing chaos).
- 38 unionised labourers working in an electrical factory were chosen.
- The questionaire was constructed with the help of an ex-employee(with 5 years of service).
- All the ways that were used by the employees to sabotage was enlisted.
- A total of 29 general sabotage methods grouped into 4 categories was produced.
- 4 general categories were;
1- Work slowdowns
2- Destruction of machinery, premises or products
3- Dishonesty
4- Causing chaos
- A list was also created of all the reasons for sabotage;
1- Self defence
2- Revenge
3- An eye for an eye
4- Protect oneself from boss/company
5- Protect one's job
6- The foreman/company deserved it
7- The foreman/company hurt me previously
8- No one was hurt by action
9- Release of frustrations
10- Just for fun

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Psychometric Test though are easy to administer and score, they are prone to demand characteristics and social desirability.

Job Description Index is one of the most tested and carefully validated tests and is based on standardized norms.

Each individual score can be compared to a bank of scores taken from a huge sample of participants.

It is possible to identify whether the individual is more or less satisfied than others of the same age, sex, occupation and so on.

The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionaire is also a well validated test.

One main problem with both of the test is that offering respondents slightly different responses to choose from can have significant effects on the answers which would clearly reduce the validity and reliability of the test.

Quality of Working life has generated a range of initiatives in many organisations from the development of workable policies for dealing with bullying, allowing for compassionate leave or ability to work flexibly.

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Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger(1997) described the feelings that employees have towards their jobs, colleagues and companies and that these feelings would affect an organisation's growth and profitability.
Walter (1974) developed a typology which consist of 8 key components to be used to assess QWL.
8 key components :

Fair and adequate payments

Safe and healthy working conditions

Providing opportunities to use and develop skills

Opportunity for career growth and security

Positive social relationship/integration within workplace.

The total life space

Constitutionalism(policies and procedures) in the workplace

Social relevance

Walton's typology has been used in a variety of organisations and cultures no matter how different they are.

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It was designed by Weiss et.al(1967) to measure an employee's satisfaction with their job.
The long version is a (100 items) and shorter version (20 items).
The MSQ measures satisfaction with a range of aspects; company policies, scope for advancement, security, independence, recognition, responsibility, variety and working conditions.
It used a 5 point response category for measurement of job satisfaction and the results obtained were varied.

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Job Description Index(Smith et al. 1969)
5 aspects of the work satisfaction are measure :

1- experience of the work
2- salary
3- promotion prospects
4- experience of supervision
5- experience of co-workers

It is a very simple scale to which workers respond simply yes,no or can't decide to a series of statements.

The results are compared with standardised norms based on data from a large sample of people which is regularly updated.

Individual scores are compared with normative scores in respect of age, gender, job level, education and community prosperity.

Advantages of the Job Description Index identified by Smith  et al. include:

It measures specific objective areas of job satisfaction

It is relatively easy to read and does not use complex language.

Can be used on a large variety of people

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Herzberg's model draw a clear distinction between satisfaction and dissatifaction.

The findings are obatined from 200 employess which is a large sample to generalize and support predictions.

Hackman and Oldham's job characteristics theory identified the core job characteristics around which jobs can be designed.

This model provides precise, testable hypotheses and evidence shows that the core characteristics. do correlate with motivation and satisfaction.

According to the individual-situational debate even relatively small changes to the job charactersitics can impact on the individual and their attitudes.

Techniques of job design bring two theories together as they demonstrate the very many ways in which jobs can be redesigned and the effects that his can have.

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Three further techniques to increase satisfaction and motivation in workers;
1- Job enrichment- it invovles giving worker a greater variety of tasks to perform which in turn increases the level of skills and job responsibility.
2- Job rotation- It means workers have regular changes of tasks within their normal roles.
3- Job enlargement- Can be horizontal or vertical;
Horizontal involves giving workers more tasks to do but usually at the same level.This will increase variety.
Vertical involves the addition of further decision making responsibilities and/or higher level, more challenging task(Arnold et.al 2005). This will increase worker competence and sense of empowerment.

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JOB CHARACTERISTICS THEORY(Hackman and Oldham, 1976)

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JOB CHARACTERISTICS THEORY(Hackman and Oldham, 1976)

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5 key factors- Core job characteristics

Skill variety- To keep employees motivated it is required to have different skills and utilization of skills that worker has.

Task identity- It should require the completion of a whole piece of work rather than disjointed elements.

Task significance- The job should have impact on either people, either inside or outside the organization.

Autonomy- There should be autonomy in planning, scheduling and carrying out their work.

Feedback- The job itself should provide information on how well the worker is performing the job.

These key factors produce three critical psychological states which lead to motivation, satisfaction and work performance.

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Two factor theory produces 4 possible combination of motivators and hygiene.

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Two factor theory produces 4 possible combination of motivators and hygiene.

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High hygiene + high motivation= the ideal situation

High hygiene + low motivation = employees have few complaints but are not highly motivated.

Low hygiene+high motivation = employees are motivated but have a lot of complaints.

Low hygiene+low motivation= worst situation, employees are not motivated and have many compalints.

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Factors related to job itself can make employees feel a sense of achievement and thus a sense of satisfaction.

Dissatisfaction are from working conditions, technical problems and salary levels.

He stated that increase in satisfaction and decrease in dissatisfaction is not the same thing.

Herzberg's two factor theory distinguishes between motivators and hygiene factors.

Motivator factor produce satisfaction such as challenging and rewarding work, responsibility and autonomy etc.

Hygiene factors include things like job security, salary, working conditions, etc. . These do not contribute to satisfaction in real terms but their absence can lead to dissatisfaction.

In order to remove dissatisfaction these hygiene factors need to be addressed.

Some of the most important ways to remove dissatisfaction would be to pay reasonable wages, ensure employees job security and to create a positive culture in workplace.

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Theories of job satisfaction

Two-factor theory; Frederick Herzberg(1959)

He states that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction work independently of each other.

Workers are not satisfied by job or roles which only fulfill the lower order needs(physiological and safety needs).

Individuals look for gratification of higher order needs.

STUDY

He conducted over 200 interviews with engineers and accountants in the Pittsburgh area.

He asked them to describe periods in their lives when they were exceedingly happy and exceedingly unhappy with their jobs.

Detailed information was taken with focus on specific changes that took place.

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The study by Fox et.al demonstrates the effectiveness of the application of psychological principles to workplace.

The application of token economy is a simple behaviourist technique which offers consistent and predictable rewards to desired behaviours. The no. of accidents were reduced significantly and worker safety was increased.

The study shows that the way the working environment (situation) is constructed can have significant effects on the way that individuals behave.

The study by Cowpe used an experimental approach the researchers were able to compare the incidence of chip-pan fires prior to the campaign though extraneous variable was difficult to control in this study.

The study had high ecological validity as the participants were members of the general public.

Unfortunately it would not be possible to know who had watched the advert and whether it specifically prevent a fire.

Some evidence suggest that over use of media campaigns reduces effect  and awareness as people become desensitised to the meetings.

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STRENGTHS

Reports from fire brigade statistics showed an overall 12% drop in fires(with drops between 7% and 25% in the different television areas in which the advert was shown).

High level of awareness and recall of the adverts existed for considerable time.

The advertising proved effective as shown by the reduction in chip-pan fires.

WEAKNESS

What is unknown is the extent to which the 'prevention' part and 'containment' part of the advert was successful.

CONCLUSION

Cowpe suggested that it was the combined effect of the two strategies that created success of the advertisement in reducing fires, saving money, and most importantly saving lives.

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Cowpe(1989)-The research was conducted when chip-pan fires were a major cause of domestic fire in UK.
2 strategies for the campaign:
1- Prevention strategy- advertisement would instruct the people how to avoid a chip-pan fire starting.
2- Containment strategy- people will be educated about the correct and the incorrect procedures to follow should a chip-pan catch fire.

STUDY

The aim of the study was to test the effectiveness of an advertising campaign warning people about chip-pan fires(quasi experiment).

Two 60sec. advertisement  were produced, both of which showed the initial cause of the fire.

The advertisement were shown on television in ten UK regional television areas between 1976 and 1984.

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Significant decrease in the no.of days lost in both mines.

Cost of accidents and injuries declined in both mines from a baseline average for the years token economy was in effect.

Decline from a bseline average in the 1st mine was of $294,000 to an average of $29,000.

Decline from a baseline average in the 2nd mine was of $367,696 to and average of $38,972.

Both declines were approximately 90%.

The cost of the token economy scheme in the 1st mine never rose above $13850 and the cost in the second mine was $21940 in the 1st year but between $11000 and $13000 in subsequent years.

Use of token economy apparently benefitted all parties.

Towards the end of the scheme the no.of days lost was around a quarter of the national average in the 1st mine and 1/12th the national average in the 2nd mine.

Stamps were appreciated by all workers.

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They were divided into 4 groups based on the no.of working days lost due to injury.

Group 1- least hazardous work, office workers

Group 2- former, shift supervisors, technicians, engineers and surveyors.

Group 3- mechanics, labourers, operators, maintenance workers.

Group 4- most hazardous job, electrician, fuel and tube workers, scraper operator.

Token economy began in 1972 in the 1st mine and in 1975 in the 2nd mine.

Trading stamps were given along with the pay if the employees didn't suffer any injury in the month.

The amount of trading stamp varied by risk factors of each group.

The workers were given information about how this will work 6 weeks before the scheme started and 1 monthe before the start of the scheme, any worker who had not had an equipment-damaging accident or lost time injury was given 1000 stamps.

The stamps could be spent at local stores and could be exchanged for anything from a huge range of merchandise.

The miners had to keep a record of safety data, direct cost of any injuries and accidents and also the cost of the trading stamps.

This allowed a benefit-to-cost ratio to be calculated to see if the dollars saved as a result of operating the token economy exceeded the cost of the token economy.

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Reducing accidents at work : STUDY

Fox et al. (1987) investigated the use of token economy to reward workers for not having accidents or injuries for a specified period of time.

Study was conducted in 2 open pit mines and their associated product processing plants in USA.

Prior to study the no. of days lost due to accidents was over 8 times than the natural avg. in one of the mines and 3 times the national avg. for all the mines.

The 2 settings were similar in terms of procedures and sizes.

The participants were the employers at the 2 mines. The no. of employees in the 1st mine was 197 in 1979, rose to 606 in 1979 and then decreased by 214 by 1983.

The 2nd mine employed 450 in 1970 which had increased to 501 in 1983.

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NATURE VS NURTURE DEBATE

Shift work may interfere with the normal functioning of the body. The natural circadian rhythm can be disrupted by working constantly changing shifts.

The effects identified by Knutsson are correlational as it is difficult and unethical to conduct an experiment in which participants are subjected to work for changing shifts.

The study by Gold et al. can be described as quasi experimental as he was able to compare two naturally occuring groups, thus creating an IV.

However he was not able to randomly allocate participants to these different groups meaning that there may be many differences between them.

These researchers does have useful applications in real life.

By identifying the risk that shift working may pose, not only are individuals able to make informed decisions about their own working practices, but employers are able to establish procedures designed to minimise these risks.

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92% of the day/evening nurses obtained regular anchor sleep but only 6.3%of the night nurses and none of the rotators obtained anchor sleep regularly.

Anchor sleep disruption was experienced by 49% of the day/evening workers, 94%of the rotators and 2.9% of the night nurses.

Night nurses were 1.8 times and rotators 2.8 times more likely to report poor quality sleep than day/evening workers and were twice more likely to use medication.

Nodding off on the night shift occured atleast once a week in 35%rotators, 32%night nurses and 20%of day/evening workers who worked the occasional night shift.

In contrast, only 2.7% of day/evening nurses and 2.8% of rotators reported any incidences of nodding off on day or evening shifts.

Rotators 3.9 times as likely and night nurses 3.6 times as likely to nod off while driving to and from work as compared to day/evening nurses.

Working time, age, alcohol are factors that contributed to cognitive errors but still the rotators reported twice as many accidents as day/evening nurses.

Results are consistent with laboratory demonstrationsof the effects of sleep deprivation and disruption of circadian rhythms, particularly in the sense of increased cognitive errors.

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Gold et al.(1992) conducted a survey of Massachusets nurses which asked about shift work, sleep and accidents.

PROCEDURE

Self administered questionaire was handed to 878 nurses between June and September 1986.

They were asked whether they worked variable or same shift.

They were divided into 2 groups based on their practice.

Day and evening shift work was grouped together as they did not show disruption in circadian rhythms.

Other group was of people working night shifts and 'rotators';those who changed shifts frequently.

Mean age of sample was 33.9 yrs.

Out of 878 questionaires 687 were returned.

Rotators and night shift workers reported fewer hours of sleep than day/evening workers.

The concept of 'anchor sleep'-defined as having 4 or more hours of sleep during the same clock hours every night was used.

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Knutsson's (2003) reviewed the effects of shift work and specific serious medical disorders.
There is no specific evidence that suggest that shift work actually affects longevity.

Two studies: directly compared mortality rates between day workers and shift workers.

1. UK study reported no significant difference

2. Danish study reported a very tiny increase in relative death risk for shift workers.

Some specific disorders and conditions that arises:

Gastrointestinal disease

Cardiovascular disease

Cancer

Diabetes and other metabolic disturbances

Pregnancy

Exacerbation of existing disorders

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TEMPORAL CONDITIONS OF WORK ENVIRONMENTS

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TEMPORAL CONDITIONS OF WORK ENVIRONMENTS

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It refers to the time conditions under which people work.
Increasing number of people work "shifts" and Pheasant(1991) identifies two main approaches to the organisation of shift working.
1. Rapid Rotation Shifts; frequent shift changes that workers have to follow;-

Metropolitan Rotas ; workers work 2 day shifts, then 2 afternoon shifts and then 2 night shifts followed by 2 days off

Continental Rota; workers complete two day shifts, two twilight shifts, three night shifts, then two days off work, two day shifts,three twilight shifts,two night shifts and then three days of work after cycle begins again.

2. Slow Rotation Shift- Changes are infrequent for eg. working day shifts for several weeks and then night shifts for several weeks.

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The Hawthorne studies discussed by Wickstorm and Bendix is a field experiment, it was conducted in a real working experiement.

This gives the research high levels of ecological validity.

Field experiement leads to very low levels of control.

The study by Oldham & Brass is a natural experiment with high levels of ecological validity and low levels of control.

The control group only contained five individuals, which makes comparisons difficult.

The data on worker motivation and worker satisfaction was only collected and the scores on productivity or efficiency may have shown significant benefits of moving to the open plan offices.

It is possible that the negative ratings would have been temporary and continuing to monitor the employees over a longer time period would have shown more positive results later.

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Employees internal motivation and satisfaction with work and colleagues actually decreased sharply after the move to the open plan office.

Control group showed no such changes.

Interview data revealed that workers felt they were in a 'fishbowl'; it was difficult to focus and complete task.

They found difficult to form frienships and provide feedback without moving to a private room.

The researchers concluded that it was the physical space itself that was responsible for all these changes.

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Out of the total of 140 Full time employees 128 participated.

A total of 76 participated in all the three stages of the study.

Results are based on these 76 participants only.

Five members of the pressroom formed the control group.

The questionaire measured the following:

work satisfaction

interpersonal satisfaction

internal work motivation

Eperiment predicted that there would be an increase in supervisor and co-worker feedback, friendship opportunities, intra-departmental and inter-departmental interactions.

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Staff was fully informed at all stages of this process.

Data was collecetd at the start and all staff were in agreement that the old  building was no longer 'fit for purpose'.

Change in office was the only change.

First set of data was collected 8 weeks before the move to the open plan office.

2nd set of data was collected 9 weeks after the move.

3rd set of data was collected  18weeks after the move.

Paritcipants were told that the study was designed to assess employees reaction to their new office and their work.

Questionaire was used to collect data which was given to groups ranging  from 2-12 people.

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New office was purpose built and was located next to a railway line.

All members of the room were grouped together as they had been earlier.

Staff working in the press room kept their working space similar(control group).

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Oldham and Brass(1979);

Conducted a field study which shows that employee satisfaction ratings fell dramatically after the working environment was changed to an open plan one.

The study was conducted in a large newspaper office in USA.

It was a multi-cellular office at the start.

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Einarsen emphasized on the fact it's important to understand the different types of bullying that can take place in the organization.

Predatory Bullying- accidently in a situation where the bully is demonstrating his power over others.

This might be termed as 'institutional harassment' where a culture of bullying and aggression is ingrained throughout the organisation.

Bullying can occur under severe stressful conditions or when they are frustrated. This is termed as scapegoating.

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2 BROAD CATEGORIES;
1- Individual or personality factors of the victim and the bully.
2- Psycho-social or situational factors.
(INDIVIDUAL FACTORS)
Bjorkqvist et.al 1994 surveyed employees at the Finnish University and identified 3 main reasons:
1- Competition concerning status and job position.
2- Envy
3- The aggressor being uncertain about their own abilities.

A high proportion of people felt that the personality of the victim was also a significant factor.

Bullying are different from their non-bullied colleagues.

Studies have found victims are more sensitive, suspicious and angry, tend to have lower self-esteem and are more anxious in social settings.

(SITUATIONAL FACTORS)
These include:

deficiencies in work design

deficiencies in leadership behaviour

socailly exposed position of the victim

low morale in the department

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Einarsen(1999) identified a number of different types of bullying.
Defined bullying as 'hostile and aggressive behaviour, either physical or non-physical,directed at one or more colleagues or subordinates.
5 types of bullying behaviour;
1- Work related bullying
2- Physical violence or threats
3- Personal attacks on private life  by riddicule and gossips
4- Verbal threats including criticism and humilation
5- Social isolation
Managers supervisors are perceived as  bullies in most of the cases and this causes psychological distress than bullying by co-worker.
4 stages of bullying are suggested :
1- Aggressive behaviour
2- Bullying
3- Stigmatisation
4- Severe trauma

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The original experiment lacked experimental rigour with many uncontrollable variables and changes of participants.

The studies were conducted during the Depression, the threat of losing one's job may have contributed to the work levels.

The workers were paid according to an incentive pay system based on the outcome this is likely to have improved productivity.

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One of the studies workers(women) increasingly took opportunity to alter their work roles. (Kahn 1975) described it as a genuine transfer of power.

Greenwood(1983) found after interviewing the workers after 50years that the women worked harder to avoid being sent to the ordinary manufacturing room where the supervision was described as 'harsh'.

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It refers to the phenomenon of behaviour changing simply because it is being investigated, rather than as a result of any of the variables that were manipulated.

Wickstorm and Bendix(2000): Hawthorne studies were conducted in 1924.

It examined the effects of productivity of lighting changes and work structure changes on productivity.

The researchers concluded that lightining level did not significantly affect productivity so long it was sufficient to do the job.

Other researchers also concluded that variable under evaluation was not responsible for increased productivity.

The suggestion was made that the improved relationship between workers and the management was the key.

Workers who participated in the studies received a number of special privileges as result of taking part.

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The Hawthorne effect is a term referring to the tendency of some people to work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment.

The term is often used to suggest that individuals may change their behavior due to the attention they are receiving from researchers rather than because of any manipulation of independent variables.

The Hawthorne effect has been widely discussed in psychology textbooks, particularly those devoted to industrial and organizational psychology. However, research suggests that many of the original claims made about the effect may be overstated.

History of the Hawthorne Effect

The Hawthorne effect was first described in the 1950s by researcher Henry A. Landsberger during his analysis of experiments conducted during the 1920s and 1930s.

Why Is It Called the Hawthorne Effect?

The phenomenon is named after the location where the experiments took place, Western Electric's Hawthorne Works electric company just outside of Hawthorne, Illinois.

The electric company had commissioned research to determine if there was a relationship between productivity and work environments.

The original purpose of the Hawthorne studies was to examine how different aspects of the work environment, such as lighting, the timing of breaks, and the length of the workday, had on worker productivity.

Increased Productivity

In the most famous of the experiments, the focus of the study was to determine if increasing or decreasing the amount of light that workers received would have an effect on how productive workers were during their shifts. In the original study, employee productivity seemed to increase due to the changes but then decreased once the experiment was over.

What the researchers in the original studies found was that almost any change to the experimental conditions led to increases in productivity. For example, productivity increased when illumination was decreased to the levels of candlelight, when breaks were eliminated entirely, and when the workday was lengthened.

The researchers concluded that workers were responding to the increased attention from supervisors. This suggested that productivity increased due to attention and not because of changes in the experimental variables.

Findings May Not Be Accurate

Landsberger defined the Hawthorne effect as a short-term improvement in performance caused by observing workers. Researchers and managers quickly latched on to these findings. Later studies suggested, however, that these initial conclusions did not reflect what was really happening.

The term Hawthorne effect remains widely in use to describe increases in productivity due to participation in a study, yet additional studies have often offered little support or have even failed to find the effect at all.

Examples of the Hawthorne Effect

The following are real-life examples of the Hawthorne effect in various settings:

Healthcare: One study found that patients with dementia who were being treated with Ginkgo biloba showed better cognitive functioning when they received more intensive follow-ups with healthcare professionals. Patients who received minimal follow-up had less favorable outcomes.

School: Research found that hand washing rates at a primary school increased as much as 23 percent when another person was present with the person washing their hands-in this study, being watched led to improved performance.

Workplace: When a supervisor is watching an employee work, that employee is likely to be on their "best behavior" and work harder than they would without being watched.

Does the Hawthorne Effect Exist?

Later research into the Hawthorne effect suggested that the original results may have been overstated. In 2009, researchers at the University of Chicago reanalyzed the original data and found that other factors also played a role in productivity and that the effect originally described was weak at best.

Researchers also uncovered the original data from the Hawthorne studies and found that many of the later reported claims about the findings are simply not supported by the data. They did find, however, more subtle displays of a possible Hawthorne effect.

While some additional studies failed to find strong evidence of the Hawthorne effect, a 2014 systematic review published in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology found that research participation effects do exist.

After looking at the results of 19 different studies, the researchers concluded that these effects clearly happen, but more research needs to be done in order to determine how they work, the impact they have, and why they occur.

Other Explanations

While the Hawthorne effect may have an influence on participant behavior in experiments, there may also be other factors that play a part in these changes. Some factors that may influence improvements in productivity include:

Demand characteristics: In experiments, researchers sometimes display subtle clues that let participants know what they are hoping to find. As a result, subjects will alter their behavior to help confirm the experimenter's hypothesis.

Novelty effects: The novelty of having experimenters observing behavior might also play a role. This can lead to an initial increase in performance and productivity that may eventually level off as the experiment continues.

Performance feedback: In situations involving worker productivity, increased attention from experimenters also resulted in increased performance feedback. This increased feedback might actually lead to an improvement in productivity.

While the Hawthorne effect has often been overstated, the term is still useful as a general explanation for psychological factors that can affect how people behave in an experiment.

How to Reduce the Hawthorne Effect

In order for researchers to trust the results of experiments, it is essential to minimize potential problems and sources of bias like the Hawthorne effect.

So what can researchers do to minimize these effects in their experimental studies?

Conduct experiments in natural settings: One way to help eliminate or minimize demand characteristics and other potential sources of experimental bias is to utilize naturalistic observation techniques. However, this is simply not always possible.

Make responses completely anonymous: Another way to combat this form of bias is to make the participants' responses in an experiment completely anonymous or confidential. This way, participants may be less likely to alter their behavior as a result of taking part in an experiment.

Get familiar with the people in the study: People may not alter their behavior as significantly if they are being watched by someone they are familiar with. For instance, an employee is less likely to work harder if the supervisor watching them is always watching.

Many of the original findings of the Hawthorne studies have since been found to be either overstated or erroneous, but the term has become widely used in psychology, economics, business, and other areas.

More recent findings support the idea that these effects do happen, but how much of an impact they actually have on results remains in question. Today, the term is still often used to refer to changes in behavior that can result from taking part in an experiment.

Additional Reading

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How Does the Hawthorne Effect Influence Productivity?

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The Hawthorne effect refers to a phenomenon in which participants alter their behavior as a result of being part of an experiment or study. Learn why this matters.