ABSTRACT
Effective collaboration with researchers at Hawthorne increased Elton Mayo’s influence at the Western Electric Company, and enabled him to integrate the Hawthorne studies with the interests of his associates at the Harvard Business School. Between 1929 and 1932 Mayo nurtured that relationship, publicized the work, and protected it against professional criticism and the effects of the business depression. In the summer of 1930 at the Hawthorne Works, Fritz J. Roethlisberger learned something of the confusion and anxiety among Mark Putnam’s research associates. After returning to the Business School, Roethlisberger reported extensively on the 253 supervisors interviewed in the Operating Branch at the Hawthorne Works. In May 1930 Mayo sent Putnam and George A. Pennock a letter of introduction to W. Lloyd Warner, and he also visited the Hawthorne works that summer. Mayo continued publicizing the research by introducing prominent international visitors to the Hawthorne Works, and collaboration between Mayo’s associates and Putnam’s researchers grew.
