Hawthorne effectnoun · 1953
Well attestedNone of the researchers who ran the original studies ever used the phrase.
Western Electric ran productivity experiments at its Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois, between 1924 and 1932, varying lighting, rest breaks, and pay. John R. P. French attached the name in 1953, and Henry Landsberger's 1958 reanalysis of the studies made it standard. Later examinations of the surviving records have questioned whether the effect in the original data was anything like as large as the story implies.
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