Some of you in London might be interested in this short talk next week at the Tavistock Institute (address below) next Wednesday 28th November 1-2pm
Bill
How Human Relations Got Its Name: The Journal As Boundary Object
Anindita Banerjee and Bill Cooke: Lancaster University Management School
This talk has as its starting point in two empirical puzzles. One is about the relationship between Kurt Lewin and the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. That there was a close and very productive relationship between Lewin and his US circle and the TIHR we have always taken as given. However, our archival research, while actually showing strong Tavistock – US relationships in the WWII years, is actually devoid of data which establishes a connection between the Tavistock and Lewin. The other puzzle is how Human Relations, which as an academic field was established as a generic form of social science before the war in the US, came to have the particular work/organisational orientation it has now. We will try to argue that the journal Human Relations was not an outcome of the Lewin-circle – TIHR relationship, nor a simple documentation of the organisation specific meaning of Human Relations. Rather, it was the journal around which the relationship and the field formed. That is, it was the boundary object which brought the Human Relations field, and the key transatlantic alliance that made it a managerial concern into being.
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations
30 Tabernacle Street
London
EC2A 4UE
+ 44 20 7457 3916 (direct)
+ 44 7950 809699
Practitioner Certificate in Consulting and Change
The TAVISTOCK INSTITUTE of Human Relations
tavinstitute.org/P3C
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