SCI 105
"The Hawthorne Effect"

Text and tables drawn from:

Roethlisberger, F. J. & 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.

TABLE III - Schedule of Test Periods - Relay Assembly Test Room
Period Number Special Feature Dates Included Duration
(Weeks)		  

Times of Rest Pauses
(see note 1 below)
       

A.M.

P.M.
I In regular department (see note 2 below)

5-25-27 to 5-10-27

Approx. 2

None
II Introduction to test room

5-10-27 to 6-11-27

5

None
III Special group rate (see note 3 below)

6-13-27 to 8-6-27

8

None
IV Two 5-min. rests

8-8-27 to 9-10-27

5

10:00

2:00
V Two 10-min. rests

9-12-27 to 10-8-27

4

10:00

2:00
VI Six 5-min. rests

10-10-27 to 11-5-27

4

8:45, 10:00, 11:20

2:00, 3:15, 4:30
VII 15-min. AM "snack" and 10-min. PM rest (see note 4 below)

11-7-27 to 1-21-28

11

9:30

2:30
VIII Same as VII but 4:30 stop

1-23-28 to 3-10-28

7

9:30

2:30
IX Same as VII but 4:00 stop

3-12-28 to 4-7-28

4

9:30

2:30
X Same as VII

4-9-28 to 6-30-28

12

9:30

2:30
XI Same as VII but Sat. AM off

7-2-28 to 9-1-28

9

9:30

2:30
XII Same as III (no "snack" or rests)

9-3-28 to 11-24-28

12

 None
XIII Same as VII but operators furnish own snack, company furnishes beverage

11-26-28 to 6-29-29

31

9:30

2:30
  1. "In the test room the operators normally worked a 48 hour week consisting of five 8 and 3/4 hour days, from Monday to Friday inclusive, and one half day on Saturday. The hours of work were from 7:30 to 12:00 and from 12:45 to 5:00. On Saturdays they worked from 7:30 to 12:00. ...On weekdays, they received time and a half (pay) for the 45 minutes they worked in excess of eight hours." (Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1941, p.33). Periods IV through XIII deviated from this schedule as indicated. Employees were served a company-provided lunch during the 12:00-12:45 time slot.
  2. During this period the five test subjects were observed and their output recorded while they still working in the main relay assembly department. This was a factory-like work area, with close to one hundred relay assemblers working in one large room. During subsequent periods (II - XIII) the 5 subjects were isolated in their own "private" room.
  3. The Hawthorne employees were generally paid under a complicated system comprised of an experienced-based grade rate, a straight piecework incentive rate and/or group piecework incentive rate. When the test subjects were moved into the test room (reducing their group size from 100 to 5), this required that the group piecework rate be adjusted. Thus, the "special" pay rate was NOT a pay increase. In fact the change in the pay scale was designed to make certain that the operators would not make more than they would have in the normal workroom.
  4. This was a company provided snack, consisting of sandwiches (pb & j, egg salad or tongue!) or soups, and some fruit, generally.