9.1 Work Attitudes 335 Job Satisfaction:Some History The Early Period of Job Satisfaction Research In the mid-1920s,Elton Mayo,an Australian psychologist,introduced the concept of emo- tions into mainstream American I-0 psychology.He argued that factory work resulted in various negative emotions such as anger,fear,suspicion,lowered performance.and increased illness (Mayo,1923).This in turn led to the development of labor unions and worker unrest.(It was no accident that Mayo identified labor unions as the pathological result of job dissatisfaction.He had been actively opposing labor unions in his native Australia long before he arrived in the United States [Griffin,Landy,Mayocchi.2002]) Until this point,there had been little interest among psychologists or managers in the hap- piness of workers.It was assumed that workers cared only about wages and that as long as they were paid adequately,they would be happy.There were occasional surveys of worker satisfaction,but the surveys asked managers about the happiness of the workers rather than asking the workers themselves(Houser,1927). In the early 1930s,two very different research projects breathed life into the concept of job satisfaction.The first was a survey of all the working adults in a small town in Job satisfaction Pastive Pennsylvania.Robert Hoppock(1935)was interested in the answer to two questions How attu血e emotianal state happy were workers,and were workers in some occupations happier than workers in other wul相g from the apprasal occupations?He discovered that only 12 percent of workers could be classified as dissatis. fied.He also found wide variations among individuals within occupational groupings nev. ertheless,workers in some occupational groups (e.g.,professionals and managers)were,on the whole,happier than those in other categories (e.g.unskilled manual laborers).These findings suggested that both job-related and individual differences variables might influ- ence job satisfaction. The second research project was begun at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company in Cicero,Illinois,in the late 1920s (Roethlisberger Dickson.1939).As you may recall from our discussion in Chapter 1.the purpose of the Hawthorne studies was to examine the relationship between various physical aspects of the work environment (light. ing.workday length,the timing of rest breaks)and productivity.The findings suggested that the perceptions of workers had a greater effect on productivity than the actual physical working conditions. More surprisingly.they also suggested that with almost all of the experimental conditions the researchers introduced. production improved.When illumina- tion was reduced virtually to the level of candlelight,production improved.When the length of the workday was increased. production improved.When rest pauses were eliminated,production improved. These results were so unexpected that the researchers followed up the experiments with extensive interviews and an exami- nation of workers'diaries in an attempt to determine why the reduced illumination Job satisfaction is a positive emotonal state that can result from positive and longer work periods did not have the interactions with one's coworkers