512 PSYCHOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS
ing at piece work were offered additional pay for increased output.
Contrary to expectation, instead of rising, their production fell off
20 per cent. The reason for this drop was found to be the fact that the
girls were required to turn over their earnings to their parents. When
subsequently these same girls were told that they would be permitted
to go home as soon as they finished a specified amount of work, they
were ready to go home by 2:30 P.M. even though the specified quota was
higher than the maximum of what they had been doing before.
Many studies reveal that men want other things from their labors
besides high wages. Wyatt, Langdon, and Stock1 obtained the follow-
ing ranking in the order of preference of 10 motives from a group of
factory workers:
1. Steady work
2. Comfortable working conditions
3. Good working companions
4. Good boss
5. Opportunity for advancement
6. High pay
7. Opportunity
8. Opportunity to learn a job
9. Good hours
10. Easy work
The first position of importance in this list is obviously given to the
need for job security. Men who are uncertain of what tomorrow has
in store for them are insecure and do not put forth their best effort.
That liking for work can be increased by improving working conditions,
the motive receiving second place in the above list, is a common-sense
view confirmed by extensive studies on monotony and fatigue carried
on at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company, reported
by Mayo.2 The third and fourth items in the list suggest the impor-
tance of favorable human relations as a motivating factor for workers.
This, too, is amply supported by the results of systematic interviews
with employees carried on at the Hawthorne plant over a period of
three years, well summarized in the following quotation from Putnam;3
The comments from employees have convinced us that the relationship
between first line supervisors and individual workmen is of more importance in
1 Wyatt, S., Langdon, J. N., and Stock, F. G. L.y Fatigue and Boredom in
Repetitive Work, Industr. Health Res. Bd., 1937, No. 77.
2 Mayo, E., The Human Problem in Industrial Civilization, The Macmillan
Company, New York, 1933. (
• Putnam, M. L.; Improving Employee Relations, Person. /., 1930, 8,314r-32£