ABSTRACT
This chapter describes industrial research in the test rooms, interviewing employees and supervisors, and the bank wiring observation room at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois, and how, between 1928 and 1931. In September 1928, on his way back from observing industrial problems in Colorado, Elton Mayo spent two days at the Hawthorne Works. Mayo’s evaluation centered on the interview, and argued that training in how to interview would produce “an entirely superior technique of selecting and training administrators.” Mayo could see that all the interviewers were capable of following the ideas he was advocating; some understood from first hand experience the indirect interview style, but most were badly confused as to the precise research objectives. In September 1929 the influence of Mayo’s views extended at the Hawthorne Works when he accepted George A. Pennock’s invitation to address company executives on his evaluation of the Hawthorne research.
