Do you work harder when someone is watching?

I made this selection because it had allot to do with physchology, which is an area that I have explored a  little in High School. Of all the things in physchology that interest me the most though, it's how people react when they know they are being watched compared to when they don't know. This is not only an issue of physchology, but an issue of ethics. The reason i chose this question is because it's something I often wonder about myself.

I believe that I work harder when some is watching. If you're working without anyone watching me, I can relax more because if I make a mistake I won't get in trouble right away. But if I'm being watched I tend to worry about avoiding mistakes and working as fast as possible to avoid getting into trouble with your employer. When someone is watching me work I always give more effort than I normally would because when I'm doing something they're paying me to do, I wan't them to see that I'm doing it well. Really, it's all about impressing the person who hired me.

I feel the Hawthorne Effect might just be the most common sense psychological theory I've ever seen. Just by reflecting on your own behavior almost anyone should see that they work harder when being watched. It's just a natural thing for people to work harder to impress the person who is providing for us, in this case the people paying us. The theory makes sense and has evidence to back up what it claims, so I think it's a good theory.

I believe this observation is ethical. If you agree to work for a company under their conditions, then you agreed and that's all there really is to it. If someone doesn't want to be observed then they can work somewhere else or just deal with it. If a company is paying you  by the hour, they are perfectly justified in making sure you're doing your work. There is a chance that it will have psychological effects like stress. Actually, its almost certain that they will cause some people to experience more stress than they normally do. Not many people like to be observed, and when they are they become more aware of what they're doing and start to become more concerned about how well they do their jobs, so like everything else in the world, being observed has it's affect.

Observations is a good way to collect data, but because of the effect it has on people it isn't the best. If a company monitors it's employees without their knowledge it would be far more effective, however monitoring them without their knowledge is unethical in my opinion. There really is no way to know for sure whether employees are doing their jobs properly without some form of monitoring, so really it may not be a great choice, but it's the only good one.