Manufacturing Knowledge: A History of the Hawthorne Experiments

What motivates workers to work harder? What can management do to create a contented and productive workforce? Discussion of these questions would be incomplete without reference to the Hawthorne experiments, one of the most famous pieces of research ever conducted in the social and behavioral sciences. Drawing on the original records of the experiments and the personal papers of the researchers, Richard Gillespie has reconstructed the intellectual and political dynamics of the experiments as they evolved from the tentative experimentation to seemingly authoritative publications. Manufacturing Knowledge raises fundamental questions about the nature of scientific knowledge, and about the assumptions and evidence that underlay debates on worker productivity.

Library Journal

This is a scholarly, detailed, historical analysis of the famous 1924-1933 Hawthorne experiments and the literature of criticism and commentary that followed the initial accounts. Gillespie argues that numerous interpretations of the experiments and their relevance for management theory evolved because ``scientific knowledge is produced in specific social, institutional, and ideological contexts and that these contexts leave their imprint on the knowledge claims made by scientists.'' Since the findings of the Hawthorne experiments continue to influence personnel management, this work will be of interest to those concerned with worker motivation and productivity. Highly recommended for academic libraries, particularly those with graduate collections.-- Jane M. Kathman, Coll. of St. Benedict Lib., St. Joseph, Minn.