What is the Hawthorne effect?

Hawthorne effect was put forward by Mayo, a psychologist at Harvard University. It means that when people realize that they are being watched or observed, they will deliberately change some behaviors or verbal expressions. The word Hawthorne comes from the factory used for experiments. This is the name of a factory of American Western Electric Company in Chicago. At the beginning of the experiment, the relationship between working conditions and production efficiency, including external environmental conditions, was studied.

"Hawthorne effect" case

Hawthorne effect is also widely used in education. There used to be a school abroad, where all students had to take an intelligence test before entering the school, and then they were divided into classes. Results In a routine inspection, it was found that the intelligence test results of a group of students in the last session were reversed because of some mistakes. In other words, students in ordinary classes are actually smarter than students in excellent classes.

But magically, the students in the excellent class are not worse than the students in the ordinary class because of their low intelligence level, but are as good as the students in other excellent classes. In fact, the reason why these ordinary children become excellent is not because of their high level of intelligence, but because they are regarded as top students, and they also hint from the bottom of their hearts that they are excellent. Coupled with the extra care of teachers, they changed from a "fake" top student to a real top student.

Enlightenment of Hawthorne effect

1, the importance of prompt

Sometimes, white lies and compliments can really make a person. Because what kind of person we think we are, we will work hard in which direction and eventually become that kind of person.

2. The importance of attention

Many times, enterprises only consider welfare benefits in promoting employees' enthusiasm. In fact, what employees need more is a sense of collective belonging and identity. Even if the salary of some enterprises is not very high, the leaders have a strong sense of identity with their employees. They will always encourage and care for their employees and face difficulties with them. Such a team will be more cohesive and more effective.

Generally speaking, Hawthorne effect is a common psychological effect in management, which is reflected in all aspects. Managers can improve employees' work enthusiasm through this skill, and employees can also use this hint to improve their work motivation.