Manufacturing Knowledge
A History of the Hawthorne Experiments

Richard Gillespie (Author)

9780521456432, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 May 1993

296 pages, 10 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.44 kg

"One of the many virtues of Richard Gillespie's careful examination of both the experiments and the experimenters is that it reveals how many interpretations of the evidence there have been." H. M. Gitelman, Business History Review

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 behavioural 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.

Editors' preface
Glossary of manuscript collections
Introduction
1. The management of work
2. The T room
3. Interpreting the relay test
4. Elton Mayo and the research network
5. The psychopathology of industrial life
6. The anthropology of work
7. Manufacturing the Hawthorne experiments
8. Human relations in industry
9. Human relations in the social sciences
Conclusion: manufacturing knowledge
Acknowledgements
Bibliography of the Hawthorne experiments
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]