Hawthorne and Pearson on Productivity

Some of us seriously doubt we can deduce anything at all about short-term changes in productivity for work at home in most cases of knowledge or office work. The reason is Pearon’s Law and the Hawthorne Effect. 

Pearson's Law states that “when performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.” In other words, productivity metrics improve when people know they are being measured, and even more when people know the results are reported to managers. 

In other words, “what you measure will improve,” at least in the short term. It is impossible to know whether productivity--assuming you can measure it--actually will remain better over time, once the near term tests subside. 

What we almost certainly are seeing, short term, is a performance effect, as Pearson’s Law suggests. 

We also know that performance improves when people are watched. That is known as the Hawthorne Effect.    

In other words, much of what we think we see in terms of productivity is a measurement effect. There is no way to know what might happen when the short-term measurement effect wears off. 

source: Market Business News