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s any effects which these personal issues might have on the experiment, had completely changed the quality of their relationships at work and this had a consequent effect on morale and productivity.
This unintentional effect of observing people at work became known as "The Hawthorne Effect", and the results of the research, when they were published late in the 1930's, had an almost revolutionary effect on prevailing theories of motivation to work. Instead of focusing on money as the motivator, attention turned to the importance of "human relations" as a means of motivating employees. One over-simplistic view of human motivation was replaced by another equally simplistic theory. Thousands of managers were sent on training courses to learn the skills of "relating" to their employees, understanding employee problems and showing concern. .
Employers who followed Herzberg also rejected money as a motivator, and focused their efforts on providing more enriched jobs. McGregor led them to abandon the view of working people as lazy and reluctant to work without threats and incentives (Theory X). Instead he proposed Theory Y, which told them that people basically wanted to do a good job and they should provide opportunities for satisfaction from a job well done. McClelland focused attention on giving people the opportunity to satisfy their needs for achievement, power, and affiliation.
In the 1970's case studies were done on organizations which had followed these exhortations. Unlike the first rash of converts, whose massive efforts and successful results had contributed to the popularity of the "needs" approach in the 60's, these second generation studies showed an array of mixed results. There were job enrichment programs which had resulted in most of the staff leaving; human relations programs which had reduced conflict but at the expense of causing output to fall and companies which removed incentive payment systems and found they could not manage the resulting need for more directive supervision.
