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Strategies to Avoid the Hawthorne Effect

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Strategies to Avoid the Hawthorne Effect

First, it is important to understand the Hawthorne effect in order to effectively identify the

strategies to avoid it. The Hawthorne effect is the tendency of the workers or employees to

perform better when they know that someone is watching them (Dessler, & Phillips, 2008). Due

to the negative effects of monitoring, strategies such as the use of technology and change of

environment are encouraged to reduce the need for the Hawthorne experiment.

Change of environment

A company can turn into Research and Development (R&D) with the aim of developing

new products. This will have a great influence on management theory in essence that the

manager will not be a concern anymore with efficiency. More diversified product lines are

created hence the need for a manager to decentralize by setting up new divisions to oversee the

new products. With this move, the top management will have to rely on divisions’ employees

and managers on decision making. Additionally, managers will allow low-level employees to

decide on what to do to increase innovation. The success of this strategy is based on the fact that

managers will use the people-oriented approach in managing the workforce (Dessler, & Phillips,

2008).

Use of technology

Large factories such as clothing manufacturing industries can use technology embedded in

workers’ machines such as radio frequency identification (RFID) to monitor work progress.

There is no need for employees to be informed because the firm will use the information

obtained. Information obtained will be used to make a decision on whether the Hawthorne effect

is necessary for workers handling simple tasks or the ones working on complex tasks
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(McConnell, 2010). The organization will then decide on the way forward-whether Hawthorne is

necessary or not.
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References

Dessler, G., & Phillips, J. (2008). Managing Now!. Houghton Mifflin.

McConnell, S. (2010). Rapid Development. Microsoft Press.