Hawthorne Effect

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Audio question

1. AThe Hawthorne effect describes how workers deliberately slow down when they know managers are watching, in order to avoid having production targets raised. The lecturer explains that this was first observed in the 1920s and that modern re-analysis has firmly confirmed the original findings, which is why the term remains central to research design today.
2. BThe lecturer uses the Hawthorne studies to argue that telephone manufacturing in Chicago declined because of poor lighting, prompting Western Electric to redesign its factories. The company's consultation with workers led to the creation of modern trade unions, and the lecturer concludes that the studies are chiefly important as a milestone in labour history rather than research methodology.
3. CThe Hawthorne effect comes from lighting studies at Western Electric in the 1920s and 1930s, where productivity rose whether lights were brightened, dimmed or left unchanged. Researchers concluded that being observed and consulted, not lighting, drove the change, an idea influential in management and research methods. Later re-analysis found the effects weaker and partly explained by other factors, though the term remains a useful caution.
4. DStudies at the Hawthorne Works showed that output rose when lighting was improved and fell sharply when it was dimmed, confirming that physical working conditions are the main driver of productivity. The lecturer notes that later economists re-examined the data and found the lighting effect even stronger than originally reported, making it a cornerstone of management theory.

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Source: Pearson, PTE Academic & UKVI test format, Part 3: Listening, checked 9 October 2026.