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The Hawthorne Studies were a series of experiments on worker productivity started in 1924 at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric Company. The tests were to determine the effect of illumination on output; five tests pointed to the importance of factors other than illumination in affecting productivity. Early interpretations agreed that human relations not money caused increased output. Workers performed better when managers treated them positively. New data showed that money mattered, but productivity increased because of increased feelings of importance and group pride felt when selected for the project. One unintended contribution of the experiments was a rethinking of field research practices. Researchers realized that the researcher could influence the outcome of an experiment by being too involved with research subjects---the Hawthorn effect

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williams idirisu

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its an important part because tell you about step into the science of management pratice

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Q: Why can an event such as the hawthorne studies be a major turning point in the history of management even if the idea is later shown in error?
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What are the challenges facing operations management?

2) Sustainability is coming, and operations leaders need to understand how to implement it within their organization in a manner that pays for itself. Good corporate citizenship is nice, but you've got to be able to sharpen your operation with your sustainability efforts as well. Turning it into a business model improvement rather than a cost item can be a challenge. 3) Learning the Genius of AND (borrowed from Jim Collins, "Built to Last") - having operational excellence AND innovation, sustainability AND profitability, faster deliveries AND lower inventories, less people AND more productivity - it's easy to view these as choices between one or the other. Finding solutions where both can be true can be hard, and requires new ways of thinking.


What are the functions of Manufacturing department?

Aims and functions of production department Production is the functional area responsible for turning inputs into finished outputs through a series of production processes. The Production Manager is responsible for making sure that raw materials are provided and made into finished goods effectively. He or she must make sure that work is carried out smoothly, and must supervise procedures for making work more efficient and more enjoyable.


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The Small Business Administration offers a Mentor or Counselor program for new and expanding businesses. These include SCORE Mentors, Small Business Development Centers, WomenÕóë¢ÕŠëÑÕŠëés Business Centers, and the like.


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Skill assessment is an evaluation of an employee's ability to perform professionally and checking whether he's performing as per the set standard. It tells the employer whether employees are sufficiently qualified to carry out the tasks assigned to them or whether they need further training on any service or product. Several organizations are now turning to online skill assessment tests for their employees. It doesn't interfere with productivity because employees can carry out the tests at their own convenience, without putting their work on hold. The skills assessment test by CareerStep is an example of online test that can be customized to meet your company's requirements.


Bases of departmentation?

Departmentation is a process resulting out of choice to group tasks according to some criterion. The resultant process of departmentation includes decisions regarding segregating organizational work, allocation of work to persons, telling all involved who is in charge and provide for the support needed by those. Given the nature of these choices and decisions, departmentation and the criteria or bases used for creating departments can have serious impact on the organization's effectiveness. Nine bases of departmentation are common among managerial choices: (a) Departmentation by numbers: Perhaps this is the simplest way to create groups or units within the organization, if we assume that all the individuals available are possessing same skills, abilities and other required qualifications. If so, and if the manager has a fair idea of how many people might be required to carry out the task, the grouping by size is ready. Given this nature, we might guess that this method is more useful where the task requires more of a muscle force (for example, an army battalion, or the building contractors' work-force) rather than use of specialized skill. (b) Departmentation by time of duty: Generally this basis is chosen when the operation or organizational activity is required to be carried on round the clock. The staff which is divided as per the time or shift basis might possess a set of different skills and abilities. Usually we find departmentation using this method at the lower levels of the organization, including manufacturing operations at the plant level, various security and control operations. Within the service sector, we find medical or firefighting services available round the clock, all days of the week. (c) Departmentation by function: This widely used method of departmentation is found in almost all organizations at some level and to some degrees. Groups are created such that within a group, people perform same function or activity, which at the lower level can even be identical. Example is a production department where all the jobs are focused on one activity, and the machine operators or workers assigned to a particular job such as machining or turning might be doing the same work. When work is divided like this, we have different groups performing different activities, so after functional departmentation, coordination among these groups is required. (d) Departmentation by Process or Equipment: This basis of departmentation is sometimes required by the technology itself as part of the production activity, where the transformation of raw material into finished goods is achieved through performance of various processes. Example is production unit of textiles, where workshops dedicated to processes like spinning, weaving, dying etc. sequentially operate to manufacture the finished goods. For other organizations also, sometimes the cost of specialized technology makes more sense for some facilities to be organized by process and be shared. Example is the Electronic Data Processing unit in small a organization. (e) Departmentation by Location or territory: If an organization's activities are scattered and if the differences across locations are significant in terms of customer preferences or the difficulty in handling complex scheduling issues, or the importance of local participation in decisionmaking , it makes sense to use departmentation by territory or location. The Indian Railway, for example is divided along territorial lines into central railway, western railway and so on. This method of departmentation is observed in the sales and service departments of many organizations where the major departmentation at the first level below the head of the organization is along functional line, but at the sub-department level, the sales department would have geographic regions or zones catered to by regional or zonal offices. (f) Departmentation by Product: as the name suggests, the grouping of activities is by the product, which evolves mainly in organizations that have grown into multi-product set-up. The usually preceding functional organization might not be supporting the growth and spread of business across different types of products. The head of the organization might be supported by product managers, in turn who might be supported by various functional sub-departments dedicated to specific product. On a large scale, these product managers become heads of divisions run like separate companies within the overall company. While this arrangement is good for paying close attention to the market, the demand and the competitive scenario for each of the products, it might be too expensive to maintain this type of departmentation unless the sales volumes or profits are high enough to justify it. (g) Departmentation by Customer: One more method to pay close attention to the needs of the customer is to create departments by customer types. We have within banks this type of departments - retail banking for retail customers, corporate banking for business clients, separate services for high net worth individuals, and so on. The rates offered for same products or services might be different in case of some departments compared to the routine business with retail individual customers, because again the volumes or the deal values might be very high. If so, even the procedures and rules, the purchase process, payment methods etc. might be different for these departments. (h) Departmentation by Market or Distribution Channel: Companies who want to ensure that their product reaches the intended customers through multiple channels so that the product enjoys high saliency and provides easy reminder to the customers can consider this type of departmentation. You can take the example of VIP luggage. This product is available in its dedicated, company owned show rooms as well as through the distributors and retailers. Each of the last two sell this brand along with several others. If so, once again you might wonder if the commonly needed service functions such as accounting or human resource management would be provided separately for each department managing a separate channel of distribution or market of the same product. If so, there might be confusion also, apart from high costs. But examining the structures of the organization, we would realize that departmentation by this type is also usually combined with some other basis for the best results. (i) Departmentation by Services: This type is especially meant for combination with other type(s) of departmentation, because it refers to the type of internal services provided within the organization and the number of people engaged in those services. The examples are Management Information System (MIS), Human Resource Management, Legal, Secretarial Assistance, House-keeping, Maintenance, Medical facilities and so on. These services are helpful in keeping the business activities and the flow of revenue-generating processes smooth. However, when dedicated in-house departments are created, sometimes they add to staff and operational costs because the support work required may vary and during the down-side of fluctuating type of business. Additionally, when separate departments such as MIS are created, they might generate volumes of reports which are not found usable by the intended users. Finally, the separation of service form the intended users sometimes leads to great importance attached to the service itself, for example purchasing of most cost-effective parts, but it does not satisfy the need of the intended users. Source: Gerloff E. A. (1985), Organizational Theory and Design - a Startegic Approach for Management, McGraw-Hill Series in Management pp. 228-233

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