Hawthorne Works

At its peak of operations, Hawthorne employed 45,000 workers, producing large quantities of telephone equipment, but also a wide variety of consumer products.

The facility is well-known for the studies in industrial relations held there in the 1920s, and the Hawthorne effect for a worker management behavior is named for the works.

[4]: 63 220 employees of the Hawthorne works, many of them Czech immigrants, were among those killed in the capsizing of the SS Eastland in Chicago on July 24, 1915; they were preparing to depart on a company-sponsored excursion at the time.

[5][6] The term "Hawthorne effect" refers to the type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.

[7][8] It was first observed in data from the Hawthorne Works collected by psychologist Elton Mayo and later reinterpreted by Henry A. Landsberger, who coined the term.

Aerial view of the Hawthorne Works, ca. 1907.
Aerial view of the Hawthorne Works, ca. 1925. This image and the image above are created from the same angle.
The last vestige of the Hawthorne Works. This tower can be seen in the center-left of the aerial view (above).