Fritz Roethlisberger

Fritz Jules Roethlisberger (born October 29, 1898 in New York City , † May 17, 1974 in Cambridge (Massachusetts) ) was an American economist and professor at Harvard University .

Life

The son of Friedrich and Lina Roethlisberger was born on October 29, 1898 in New York. After an Artium Baccalaureus ( Bachelor of Arts ) from Columbia University , Roethlisberger moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Bachelor of Sciences in chemistry in 1922 . He worked in the chemical industry until 1924 , then attended Harvard University and received a Master of Arts in philosophy in 1925 . His studies towards a PhD in philosophy were interrupted when he met Elton Mayo and worked for him at the University's Department of Industrial Research .

From 1927 to 1930 he worked as a lecturer for industrial research, from 1930 as assistant professor and from 1938 as junior professor. In 1946 he was given the full professorship. In 1950 he was appointed Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Human Relations . He held the position until his retirement in 1967. In 1963 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland .

Roethlisberger was heavily influenced by Mayo and Mary Parker Follett . Mayo brought him together with the topic through which Roethlisberger should establish himself as a well-known researcher, the experiments in the Hawthorne factory of the Western Electric Company in Chicago, which Roethlisberger carried out together with William J. Dickson and which was the first to describe as the Hawthorne effect .

According to the research methods of Scientific Management that were customary at the time, the influence of lighting on work performance was investigated from 1924 under the direction of Dugals C. Jackson from MIT. The working hypothesis was that a change in lighting would have an impact on the volume output. The lighting was gradually reduced and an increase in the volume output was observed. In interviews, however, workers at the plant said they found the brighter light to be more pleasant. From 1924 to 1928, Western Electric collaborated with the National Research Council (NRC) to investigate this relationship in various experiments, all of which showed unexpected results. In 1928, the NRC finally withdrew and Western Electric turned to Elton Mayo at Harvard University. Roethlisberger was involved in the research from 1927, first as Mayo's assistant, and later as a collaborator.

Mayo and the researchers at Western Electric continued to examine the data and finally gave up the lighting idea. Instead, they focused on the observable effect of break length and volume output. By observing the relay assembly, which is easy to monitor, they lengthened or shortened the break times. Longer breaks had a noticeable effect on the volume output. As a result, management extended the break times for the entire plant, but this only achieved a small improvement in performance.

In a renewed examination of the data, the researchers finally concluded that it was not the break times that were responsible for the better volume output, but the more varied and interesting environment due to the researchers' presence. While trying to create an environment with uniform and repeatable influences, they altered the familiar environment of workers in ways that they perceived to be stimulating. Instead of quantifying and controlling environmental factors, the researchers had to record and describe a social environment.

As a result, the research area expanded and the motivation of workers and their attitude towards the company moved into the focus of research along with other factors. By 1933 Mayo and his colleagues had set up an interview program in which all approx. 10,000 Western Electric employees were interviewed. This made this study the largest of its kind to date. With input from Western Electric, the results were examined and discussed by various student councils at Harvard University. Mayo himself, Thomas North Whitehead, and Lyndall Urwick wrote important papers on the research. The official final report, however, was written by Roethlisberger and the Western Electric manager Dickson.

The 600-page final report appeared in 1939 under the title Management and the Worker and became the basic text for the human relations approach and organizational behavior . The most important and fundamental finding of the detailed report was that companies are not machine-like structures, but rather social systems. Roethlisberger and Dickson argued that the organization must have two goals:

Produce and
the creation and maintenance of satisfaction among the employees of the organization.

As a result, companies are constantly confronted with two problems, the problem of external balance and the problem of internal balance, i.e. on the one hand the economic constraints of the market and competition and on the other hand the satisfaction of the social needs of their employees.

In 1947 Roethlisberger was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

student

Roethlisberger's doctoral students also included Paul R. Lawrence , who wrote one of the most important works of contingency theory with Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration , a joint work with Jay Lorsch .

Publications

Books

1939, Management and the Worker , with William J. Dickson
1941, Management and Morale
1966, Counseling in an Organization , with William J. Dickson
1968, Man-in-Organization
1977, The Elusive Phenomena

items

1945, The foreman: Master and Victim of Double Talk ; Harvard Business Review 23.3 (1945): 283-298

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa Morgen Witzel: Encyclopedia of History of American Management . A&C Black, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84371-131-5 , pp. 442-445 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Harvard Business School Archives, Fritz J. Roethlisberger Papers , Baker Library, Harvard Business School.
↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter R. (PDF; 508 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved July 24, 2018 .
↑ Jim Aisner: Harvard Business School Professor Paul. R. Lawrence Dies at 89. Giant in the history of organizational behavior and Harvard Business School. In: Harvard Business School website. November 3, 2011, accessed July 16, 2018 .
^ Stefan cooling: key works of organizational research . Springer-Verlag, 2015, 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-09068-5 , pp. 396-399 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-658-09068-5 .

personal data
SURNAME	Roethlisberger, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Roethlisberger, Fritz Jules (full name); Roethlisberger Fritz J .; Roethlisberger FJ
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American economist
DATE OF BIRTH	October 29, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York City
DATE OF DEATH	17th May 1974
Place of death	Cambridge, Massachusetts

[Witzel2005-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa Morgen Witzel: Encyclopedia of History of American Management . A&C Black, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84371-131-5 , pp. 442-445 .

[HBSArc-2] Harvard Business School Archives, Fritz J. Roethlisberger Papers , Baker Library, Harvard Business School.

[3] Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter R. (PDF; 508 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved July 24, 2018 .

[HBR2011-11-03-4] Jim Aisner: Harvard Business School Professor Paul. R. Lawrence Dies at 89. Giant in the history of organizational behavior and Harvard Business School. In: Harvard Business School website. November 3, 2011, accessed July 16, 2018 .

[Kuehl2017-5] Stefan cooling: key works of organizational research . Springer-Verlag, 2015, 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-09068-5 , pp. 396-399 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-658-09068-5 .