The Hawthorne Effect is a well known and often repeated study on human behavior. It was one of several studies that took place at the Western Electric Plant in Cicero, Illinois between 1927 and 1933, that were designed to measure aspects of a working environment and their effects on production. What the researchers learned then remains an important lesson for safety management today.

Seeing the Light

The Western Electric Plant researchers noticed that the lighting in the production area was very poor, making it hard for workers to see the work. So, they decided to brighten the work area and measure the corresponding production. As you probably guessed, more light equaled more production. Well, if some light was good, the researchers surmised, then more light would be better. They increased the lighting even more and yet again production rose.

The researchers were very pleased with their data, but they wanted to make sure that the increased production was a result of the increased lighting. So they removed all of the incremental light that was added and went back to the low light, dingy conditions they had started with. They were extremely surprised when the production went up yet again.

The lesson learned – and what has become institutionalized as the Hawthorne Effect – is that it was not the lighting condition that drove increased performance, it was the fact that someone was watching and measuring. Someone cared and it made a difference.

What Message Are You Sending?

OK, so I’m not a proponent of poor jobsite lighting or other unsafe conditions, but I do see how this lesson can tie into safety management. If you don’t watch, if you don’t measure, if you don’t have meaningful consequences, the subtle message you are communicating is that whatever the endeavor, it doesn’t really matter, it isn’t really meaningful and no one really cares.

If we say nothing to the worker without fall protection or who’s not wearing safety glasses on a jobsite, we’re telling the worker, “it’s not that important and we’re not really watching.”

Good Management Affects Accident Rates

Some more recent studies conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the US Department of Energy (DOE) evaluated traditional safety elements (quantity or quality of safety rules, accident investigations, amount of safety training, etc) and their impact on accident rates.

Just like the Hawthorne Effect Study, these studies found an outcome they were not expecting. These studies revealed that there were no significant differences in the accident rates between organizations that did these “traditional” techniques and those who did not.

What did evolve was a direct correlation between organizational elements, such as planning, budgeting, attitude towards workers, management/employee relationships, etc. and accident rates. Companies that managed poorly had high losses and those that managed well had low losses.

Conclusion

Effective loss reduction is more a function of organizational culture and management process than that of a good written safety program. It’s how we manage our process and people – letting them know that we are indeed watching and measuring – that will determine our success.

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