Problem:
Reply to the following paragraph in a humanely was giving your opinion and observation on the topic: The Hawthorne plant experiment is so interesting because what started out as an original study to determine the relationship between physical working conditions and worker productivity eventually turned into a study on human behavior. During the original experiment, the researchers found that regardless of the changes to physical working conditions, the workers had increased productivity - this was tested in several ways (light brightness, assembly test rooms, etc.) all with the same result. This made the researchers wonder how this could be which led to the conclusion that, for this experiment, the change in productivity was not influenced by the change in working conditions but rather by the workers' awareness of being observed (Hanna, 2023). Our text notes that "some researchers choose not to use direct observation, even when it is appropriate and possible, because they question its scientific validity... there is often a perception that direct observation produces highly subjective data" (Rich et al., 2018, p. 286). To ameliorate the impacts of their presence or the changes they introduced, the observers could have used more "stealthy" techniques. For example, not informing the workers they were being studied - though this certainly brings into question the ethics behind the experiment (as discussed in the Milgram experiment). Need Assignment Help?