Hawthorne, the myth of the docile worker, and class bias in psychology.

Abstract

The famous studies done at the Haw- thorne plant of Western Electric were fundamental for the development of relations in industry. They have also been cited frequently in social psychology and research methodology. Despite the appearance over the years of a number of well-argued critiques, many psy- chologists continue to show an undeserved respect for the conclusions associated with this classic research. The errors of interpretatio n seem to reflect an uncritical acceptance of the views propagated by Mayo and Roeth- lisberger to the that workers are irrational, con- fused, and easily manipulated by intelligent managers, and that the capitalist firm is natural, nonexploitative, and potentially conflict free. Evidence from the studies themselves contradicts these views, calling into question stereotypes still .current in textbooks. One of the creation myths of social and industrial psychologists, and of industrial sociologists as well (Miller & Form, 1951), revolves around the famous experiments at the Chicago Western Electric plant (1924-1933), out of which were born the Hawthorne effect and the human relations movement in industry. The importance of this work for the fields of psychology and sociology in the ensuing 50 years scarcely requires documen- tation (Dunnette, 1976; Haire, 1954; Sills, 1968; Vroom, 1969). Two HarVard University psychologists asso- ciated with the research, Elton Mayo (e.g., 1933, 1945) and Fritz Roethlisberger (e.g., 1941), were important in calling attention at an early date to what they saw as the major implications of this research for changing the relationship between management and workers. We intend to show that the distortions introduced in large part by these two pioneers were probably important in preserv- ing a view of workers as irrational and unintelli-