Hawthorne Study Criticism (7/6/2009 by TQM Doctor)
The ideological critics of the Hawthorne studies objected that the results provided an incomplete social perspective ignoring opposing stakeholder interests (Jeffrey, 1985). Additionally, the critics also stated that the study results conveyed a strong management bias for manipulating employees. In defense of the study, Landsberger demonstrated that Elton Mayo and his later publications deserve most of the ideological criticism—while the main descriptive results of the study, produced by Roethlinsberger and Dickson—suggest a strong concern for past social inadequacies.
The methodological critics focus primarily on the part of the Hawthorne study related to the relay test room while disregarding or belittling the five other elements (Jeffrey, 1985). Of the relay test room, the primary four complaints are (a) inadequate sample size, (b) insufficient controls, (c) inadvertent incentive plan changes, and (d) participant number changes throughout the study. Although the complaints are valid, they are no different than what Roethlinsberger and Dickson already reported in the study results. Additionally, Roethlinsberger and Dickson began working with the study after it was designed and initiated by other researchers.
In summary, and ignoring Mayo’s later writings, the study results were written in a manner to suggest new hypotheses for future study rather than to contest existing theory (Jeffrey, 1985). The preeminent industrial psychological ideology at the time of the study was Scientific Management (Hoopes, 2003). Additionally, before the results of the Hawthorne experiment were published, the primary focus of behavior science was the study of abnormal behavior (Suojanen, 1963). Therefore, whether the critics are right or wrong and even if Elton Mayo produced unsupported scientific conclusions using the Hawthorne results, the study was pivotal to organizational sociological research.
References
Hoopes, J. (2003). False prophets: The gurus who created modern management and why their ideas are bad for business today. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books.
Jeffrey, A. S. (1985). Shedding light on the Hawthorne studies. Journal of Occupational Behavior, 6(2), 111.
Suojanen, W. W. (1963). Management theory: Functional and evolutionary. Academy of Management Journal, 6(1).