Hiding From Managers Can Increase Your Productivity Case Study

Hiding From Managers Can Increase Your Productivity by Carmen Nobel

Introduction

The source of this article is a research done by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Ethan S. Bernstein in which he explains how decreasing workplace transparency can increase the productivity of employees. This paper will analyze Bernstein's research which was conducted on a technologically advanced manufacturer's plant in Southern China, where measures were taken to impose transparency to ensure higher productivity, but during the research the opposite was found to be true.

Summary

In the research Bernstein hires a team of five Chinese-born Harvard undergraduates to be "embeds" at the plant. These embeds lived and worked alongside with the employees,
These embeds were shown many secretive tricks and various ways by their peers which enabled easier and faster production, but were told not to use them whenever the managers were around. The researchers noticed that the production slowed down whenever the employees knew they were being watched by the managers. He further adds that these employees had no ill intent behind such hiding behavior, but that they merely weren't ready to bear the cost of explaining the pragmatic and efficient tricks which can backfire if the management thinks its illegal. Bernstein says " What managers were seeing wasn't real. It was a show being put on for an audience. When the audience was gone, the real show went on, and that show was more productive." He further concluded that watching employees less closely at work, might in fact, yield more transparency in an organization. As
Transparency implies to good communication and accountabilty, it doesn't mean direct observation or supervision. Transparency in the workplace is fruitful because employees are in contact with managers so that they can easily discuss the productivity and performance. While constant supervision of employees can cause an uneasy work environment.

His research claims that unobserved employees are much efficeint but this can also pose a risk for the company. There may be workers who actually try to steal valuables from the company , It won't be the first time if workers are caught with company’s property. Employees can get the power to do whaterver they want and whichever way they want. Managers will lose control. This makes it further clear that transperency and control are two different things. Transparency is necessary but overseeing and control is not.

The arguement is weak, one can not comment on human behavior in one research. It is not conclusive because whats true in one particular industry will not be true for another. The research was conducted on a small group of Chinese undergraduates, which proves that the theory can’t be put on a greater number of people or