Evan Davis on... the Hawthorne effect

Evan Davis

So it might well be that every time we have a new fad or a new trend in office design, everybody says it works simply because everybody’s very happy when the office looks as though attention’s been paid to it.  Which reminds me of course of those old things called hawthorn effects, which more or less come down to the observation that if you turn the light up a little bit, people work harder, if you turn the light up a bit more, they work harder, if you turn it up a little bit more, they carry on working harder, and then if you turn it down, they work a bit harder.  Every time you do something that changes the environment, that makes people feel you're paying attention to them, they respond by working harder.  Then the effect of course wears off until the next time you turn the light up or the light down, or until the next time you redecorate the office or engage in the latest fad for office design.

So we’ll always be discussing what works and what doesn’t work, but maybe what works is that we just keep discussing it and keep changing the paint. 

That’s my opinion; you can join the debate with the Open University.

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