Behavior, Technology, and Organizational Development: Eric Trist and the Tavistock Institute

by Richard Trahair (Editor)

Overview

Eric Trist was a psychologist, social scientist, and a leading figure in the field of organizational development. He was a founding member of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London and spent many years in United States academia. This book delves into Trist's life to examine the evolution of his work and how he applied social science theory, knowledge, and methods to the organization of working life and its management. Richard Trahair outlines Trist's socio-technical theory of organization and how it applies to the turbulent environment that modern managers face.

Trahair begins with Trist's educational career in England and his attitude toward American and English education. He also describes Trist's work to improve the United Kingdom's Army's method of selecting men for officer training in wartime, and his role in the establishment of the Civil Resettlement Units in England.

In place of the traditional technology-driven bureaucracy of industry, Trist recommended that social science researchers help reorganize industries on socio-technical lines. Trist provided convincing evidence that organizations dominated by traditional attitudes were inefficient and unsatisfactory. He made it clear that seeing workers as little more than costly extensions of machines and the industrial environment as nothing but a set of competitive market forces seriously limited potential for growth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412855679
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	08/30/2015
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Richard Trahair conducted research and taught social psychology at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He has published widely on the study of human problems in industry and health.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Family and Schooling

2. English Studies at Cambridge

3. Psychology Studies at Cambridge

4. The American Experience, 1933–1934

5. The American Experience, 1934–1935

6. Back Home in Dundee

7. Trist's War

8. At the Tavistock Clinic

9. Early Research and Teaching

10. Institute Colleagues

11. Institute Administration and Funding, 1952–1958

12. Early Research with Emery

13. Marriage, Palo Alto, and the Split

14. Formalizing the Split

15. Back to America

16. Three-Generation Family

17. Projects in the United Kingdom, the Americas, and Canada

18. Working Style and Future View

19. Retirement to York

20. Final Years

Writings of Eric Trist, 1925–2001

Index

Editorial Reviews

Trist (1909–93) enhanced psychology and organizational development through his work with colleagues at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, which he cofounded. . . . As part of the WW II effort for England, Trist discovered inefficiencies in the mechanized administration of the British army; he understood that repatriation of soldiers who had been prisoners of war required a form of psychiatry that dealt with the shame and lack of social attachment of the prisoners’ postwar experiences. In later years, Trist enhanced the development of socio-technical theory related to the quality of working life (QWL), which considers autonomy of work groups and understanding employees' personal and career issues, which in turn enhances the work of the organization. The QWL approach met with resistance from British companies' management and unions because it disrupted existing work methods dating back to the Industrial Revolution. A useful and interesting biographical treatment of Trist.” —G. E. Kaupins, Choice

From the Publisher