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Definition: the Hawthorne Effect is an early indicator that any worker productivity or employee motivation model must factor in intangible attributes such as human behavior. The Hawthorne experiments were a series of studies on the productivity of workers, wherein various conditions were manipulated (pay, light levels, humidity, rest breaks, etc.). Surprisingly, each change resulted in a productivity rising, including eventually a return to the original conditions.
The Hawthorne studies mark the beginning of the human relations movement, which in turn led to the creation of the HRM discipline.