Question 3

1. What are the Hawthorne Studies? explain its importance for studying motivation at the workplace and its influence over diverse motivation theories. (include key findings and limitations) (max. 500 words)

The Hawthorne studies where a series of studies done in Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois between the yeas 1927 to 1932, the study was led by Elton mayo, who was a professor in the Harvard Business School, and two associates, F.J. Roethlisberger and William J. Dickson, first they investigated how the performance of the employee changed if there where changes in the work place thru physical and environmental aspects in the work place such as humidity and brightness in the office, they had two groups, one knew that they were in an experiment, but the other group did not know that they were being watched by the investigator, they noticed that these factor did not affected the productivity in both groups, if group A improved, the group B improved, they were not affected by the changes in the work place, but they realized that each of their groups was very closed to changes, all the members of the group have to stay in the same speed as the others, if you are to slow or to fast it will turn the rest of the group against you.

The researcher noted that it did not matter what type of changes they did, the employees keep improving, but they also noticed that the employees where happy with the attention they were getting, during the investigation they draw four conclusions:
1. Even if a person has great potential, social factor can affect the level of production of the person.
2. The relationship between manager and employee can affect how the worker does his work.
3. The work-groups have their own norms of what is considered as a day’s work.
4. The work-place is a social system with independent parts.




the second part of this video you can see how the relationship between manager ans employee affect how a worker does in is work

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/history/hawthorne.html
http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/handouts/bank_wiring.htm

2. Based on the class activity about "Flight 001: Motivating Employees", please answer the following question:

¿Which motivation theory do you think has the most relevance for understanding the behavior of Griffin and fostering her motivation at work?

In this case, its attention, in her previous job, she did not feel appreciated and they considered as a part that could be replaced at any time, but in her new job, she feels appreciated, they ask her opinion and she can tell her point of view of the changes that could be made, she feel as she was an indispensable piece of a well made machine, she had a good working environment, in her opinion, what motivates her to work is not the salary, but because she feels important and especial while doing her work.