Hello folks,
I'm trying to recall the name of a study that went like this:
Business managers were trying to improve something in the physical building of the office. Either lighting or layout or something else. They brought in a team to study the effect on employees. They switched from condition A to B, and found a large improvement in employees' mood and productivity. Then, to be sure of the effect, they changed back from B to A. They, again, confusingly, found an improvement in employees' mood and productivity. To try again, they switched from A to B, and again found a yet higher improvement. The conclusion of the study was that there was a confounding positive effect on employees of regularly asking them how they were doing, which naturally increased as the results of the study became more confusing.
Anyone recally this? Or something similar?
Rorik is the winner!
It's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
On Fri, Aug 12, 2016 at 9:59 AM, Dustin Freeman dustin@dgp.toronto.edu wrote:
Hello folks,
I'm trying to recall the name of a study that went like this:
Business managers were trying to improve something in the physical building of the office. Either lighting or layout or something else. They brought in a team to study the effect on employees. They switched from condition A to B, and found a large improvement in employees' mood and productivity. Then, to be sure of the effect, they changed back from B to A. They, again, confusingly, found an improvement in employees' mood and productivity. To try again, they switched from A to B, and again found a yet higher improvement. The conclusion of the study was that there was a confounding positive effect on employees of regularly asking them how they were doing, which naturally increased as the results of the study became more confusing.
Anyone recally this? Or something similar?
-
Dustin Freeman