The Hawthorne Studies Revisited: Evidence From the U.S. Federal Workforce

Many organization theorists have recognized the Hawthorne studies as path-breaking demonstrations of the influence of social and psychological factors in the workplace. We provide evidence that important implications of the Hawthorne studies can be applied to the federal workforce. Our analysis shows that social relations and participative management style have stronger influences than physical conditions on public employees’ perceived performance. This result is congruent with summary translations of the lessons of the Hawthorne studies: “Attention is gratifying!” and “The attention apparently raised morale, and morale raised productivity.” The present study indicates that the different approaches of management will show different effects on organizational performance according to the levels of performance.