Terry Prone: Simple truth is that we all just want to decide things for ourselves — even mice

An experiment on white-footed deer mice chronicled in a book about psychology can teach people a lot about themselves, writes Terry Prone

Any sensible human has to identify with the control-seeking white-footed deer mouse. Photo: Dr William J. Weber

Teamwork trainers love the Hawthorne Experiments, going back to the 1920s and '30s, which found out much that was intrinsic to team work and job satisfaction. 

Indeed, anybody considering work-from-home issues, whether from the viewpoint of the employer or the trade union representing the workers, might learn from a re-examination of what happened in Western Electric’s plant in Hawthorne, Illinois when the sociologists went to work.