Supervisor's Survival Kit: Your First Step into Management, Ninth Edition

MOTIVATION THEORIES

Management books are full of motivational theories. Some, properly interpreted, can be useful to the beginning supervisor. Here are two examples.

From 1927 to 1932 the Western Electric Company conducted what are now known as the Hawthorne experiments. These experiments showed that no matter what improvements were made (rest periods, free hot lunches, and so forth), the productivity of the group increased. Why? The employees were made to feel important; making any improvement gave them more status and respect. Until these experiments were made, management had accepted as self-evident that the way to improve the rate of production was to improve machinery, provide better lighting, and make similar physical changes. The Hawthorne ...