The Tavistock's 1945 invention of Organization Development: early British business and management applications of social psychiatry

The management field 'Organization Development' (OD), is said to have been invented in the mid-1950s in the USA. Some contribution post-1958 by the UK Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR), and to a minor extent, in its World War II 'group-relations' work is acknowledged....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Business history 2013-07, Vol.55 (5), p.768-789
Main Authors: Burnes, Bernard, Cooke, Bill
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business
Business history
Business management
Development
Fathers
Great Britain
History
Human relations
Inventions
Kurt Lewin
Lewin, Kurt (1890-1947)
Management
Organization development
Organization Development (OD)
Psychologists
Rockefeller Foundation
Social psychiatry
Studies
Tavistock
U.S.A
United Kingdom
United States
War
World War Two
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Summary:The management field 'Organization Development' (OD), is said to have been invented in the mid-1950s in the USA. Some contribution post-1958 by the UK Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR), and to a minor extent, in its World War II 'group-relations' work is acknowledged. Otherwise, OD depicts the circle of its US 'founding father' Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) as its historic mainspring. A new 1945 primary source, the TIHR's originating funding proposal to the Rockefeller Foundation, proposes all the components of OD, outside mention of Lewin et al. Thus, what was to become OD was invented in the Britain of 1945, not the USA of the 1950s.
ISSN:0007-6791
1743-7938
DOI:10.1080/00076791.2013.790368