# 11-1: Do You Work Harder When Someone is Watching? (page 422)

I chose to read the section about whether or not people work harder while someone is watching because it interested me compared to the other option.  Also I think at some point or another we all have wondered if people work harder when being watched.  Also considering I believe it is true and have worked harder at something when I know I'm being watched intrigued me more to read this article. 

I do believe that you work harder when being watched, especially when your being watched by a boss or higher up authority.  The fact that your boss or higher up authority is watching you work makes you work harder because most people want to keep their job so if they do bad in front of the boss they may get demoted or fired.  I think no matter where you are or what your doing if you have someone watching you do that work your going to work harder at it.  My opinion about the Hawthorne Effect is that it is true and has the statistics and research to back it up.  The Effect just confirmed what I already believed about working harder while someone was watching you.  I would agree with this research 100 percent and I think anyone with doubts would too if they also saw the statistics they had.  I do think though however that it is ethical but will have a psychological effect on employees.  It's a mind game when your being watched working because you want to do well in their eyes but you don't know what their thinking or saying about your work ethic/how your working.  Observation is a good data gathering technique in a system study if productivity increases because anytime you can increase productivity in a certain field its always good to try its effects on another field.  If the productivity increases during observation than it would be a effective way to put that technique when getting data in a system study.  I think no matter what your doing or where it is, anytime your being observed or watched productivity is going to increase and be better because your being closely watched and you don't want to mess up.  So yes I believe its a good data gathering technique in system study.