TheHawthorne Works was a large factory complex of theWestern Electric Company inCicero, Illinois. In addition to industrial plants, several on-site community amenities were provided to workers. Named for the original name of what became Cicero, Hawthorne, it opened in 1905 and operated until 1983. At its peak of operations, Hawthorne employed 45,000 workers, producing large quantities oftelephone equipment, but also a wide variety of consumer products.
The facility is well-known for the studies inindustrial relations held there in the 1920s, and theHawthorne effect for a worker management behavior is named for the works.[1]
The Hawthorne Works complex was built at the intersection ofCicero Avenue andCermak Road and was opened in 1905.[2] Hawthorne Works was named for Hawthorne, Illinois, a small town that was later incorporated as Cicero. The facility consisted of several buildings and contained a private railroad,Manufacturers' Junction Railway, to move shipments through the plant to the nearbyChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad freight depot. In the first decades, the factory complex was significantly expanded.
The Hawthorne Works produced a large output of telephone equipment. In addition, Western Electric produced a wide variety of consumer products and electrical equipment, such as refrigerators. The works employed up to 45,000 employees at the height of operations. Workers regularly used bicycles for transit within the plant.
The Hawthorne Works was in operation until 1983, when it was closed as a result of the divestiture ofAT&T and thebreakup of the Bell System. It was purchased in the mid-1980s by the late Donald L. Shoemaker and replaced with a shopping center. One of the original towers remained at the corner of 22nd Street and Cicero Ave.
Due to its significance in industrial manufacturing in the United States, the Hawthorne Works was the site of well-known industrial studies. TheHawthorne effect is named for the works. North AmericanQuality pioneerJoseph Juran referred to the Hawthorne Works as "the seed bed of the Quality Revolution".[3] The career arcs of other notable quality professionals such asWalter Shewhart andW. Edwards Deming also intersected at the Hawthorne Works.
Paul Mattick, theMarxist theorist, worked here as a mechanic from 1928/29 until 1932.[4]: 63
220 employees of the Hawthorne works, many of them Czech immigrants, were among those killed in the capsizing of theSS 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 psychologistElton Mayo and later reinterpreted by Henry A. Landsberger, who coined the term.[9]
TheHawthorne Works Museum, operated byMorton College, tells the story of the Hawthorne Works facility, its products and its employees. Exhibits showWestern Electric products, such astelephones, communications and electronics equipment, inventions byBell Laboratories, localimmigrant workers and local history.[10]
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