The Hawthorne Effect - Reference List SCI Home | SCI Faculty Page | Cover Sheet | Case Notes | Users Notes

Last Revised: June 06, 2000

Author - Tim Brazill - Summer 1998

Xeroxed portions of pertinent material are available from the SCI director or Tim Brazill.

• The original source. Our library has this volume and we could place it on reserve for interested faculty. Roethlisberger, F. J. and Dickson, W. J. (1941). Management and the Worker: An Account of a Research Program Conducted by the Western Electric Company, Hawthorne Works, Chicago. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press.

Chapters I, II, and III are of primary importance.

• Two retrospective accounts of the Hawthorne research by the original authors. Very valuable insights on the discovery process, and their own early misinterpretations, etc. The Swilley Library has these.

Dickson, W. J. and Roethlisberger, F. J. (1966). Counselingin an Organization: A Sequel to the Hawthorne Researches. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press.

See Chapter II.

Roethlisberger, F. J. (1965). Management and Morale. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press.

See Chapter II here also.

• A good social science research methods text, with some background on the Hawthorne research, and discussion of standard design features developed to counteract these types of biases:

  Singleton, R.A, Jr., Straits, B. C. & Straits, M..M. (1993). Approaches to Social Research. New York, NY. Oxford University Press.

See page 29 for a brief description in the Serendipity context.
See pages 197-203 for design remedies.

• The default standard in social science research methods texts, but note that his description of particulars from the Hawthorne research is faulty.

  Babbie, E. The Practice of Social Research (1998). Belmont, CA. Wadsworth.

See pages 234-237.