Ordway Tead (10 September 1891 – November 1973)MLW, "Tead, Ordway (1891–1973)," in: ''Encyclopedia of History of American Management,''

Morgen Witzel Morgen Witzel (born 1960) is a Canadian historian, business theorist, consultant, lecturer and author of management books, especially known from his work on "Doing business in China" and on "Managing in virtual organizations".Fineman, Stephen, Yian ...

(ed.), 2005. p. 975 was an American

organizational theorist An organization or organisation ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution (formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a par ...

, adjunct professor of industrial relations at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, chair of the New York Board of Higher Education, first president of the

Society for Advancement of Management The Society for the Advancement of Management, commonly known as SAM, is the oldest among professional management societies. On November 11, 1910 colleagues of Frederick W. Taylor met at the New York Athletic Club to discuss and promote the prin ...

(SAM), editor and publishing executive, and prolific author on personnel administration and labor relations, organizational management, higher education, and political science.''S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal,'' Volume 53, 1988. p. 40

Personal

Tead was born in

Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 81, ...

the son of Edward Sampson (1852-1919) and Louise Moore Ordway (1858-1935) Tead. In 1915 Tead married Clara Alberta Murphy (1891-1980), long term president of

Briarcliff College Briarcliff College was a women's college in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The school was founded as Mrs. Dow's School for Girls in 1903 at the Briarcliff Lodge. After Walter W. Law donated land and a building for the college, it operated at ...

and they had one daughter, Diana Tead Michaelis (1925 1981) who was an award-winning documentary filmmaker and public television producer. Tead died in Westport, Connecticut in November 1973.

Career

Tead graduated from

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...

in 1908 attended

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

where he obtained his AB 1912. After his graduation he served as fellow of the

at Southend House, a

settlement house The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in the United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity an ...

in Boston, from 1912 to 1914. In 1915 he co-founded Valentine, Tead & Gregg, an industrial consultants' firm in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1917 he accepted a consulting position in the

Bureau of Industrial Research The Bureau of Industrial Research was a New York City-based labor research organization. History In 1920, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) created the Bureau of Industrial Research to address such issues, in part due to the influence of ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

until circa 1919. Following the U.S.A.'s entry into the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Tead and Dr. Henry C. Metcalf co-taught the

War Industries Board The War Industries Board (WIB) was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies between the War Department (Department of the Army) and the Navy Department. Becaus ...

Employment Management Course at

in 1917-1918 to train employment and industrial relations managers for companies engaged in war production. This course provided the foundation for their pioneering textbook on this topic. Tead continued to teach as a lecturer in personnel administration at Columbia University from 1920 to 1950 and as an adjunct professor of

industrial relations Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor union, labor/trade unions, employer organ ...

until 1956. From 1920 to 1929 he was a member of the department of industry at the

New York School of Social Work The Columbia School of Social Work is the graduate school of social work of Columbia University in New York City. It is one of the oldest social work programs in the US, with roots extending back to 1898. It began awarding a Master of Science d ...

. From 1938 to 1953 he was chair of the New York Board of Higher Education, where in 1941 he was involved in sacking any faculty staff who belonged to a Communist, Fascist or Nazi organization. In the year 1936-37, Tead served as first president of the

(SAM) which resulted from merger of the

Taylor Society The Taylor Society was an American society for the discussion and promotion of scientific management, named after Frederick Winslow Taylor. Originally named The Society to Promote The Science of Management, the Taylor Society was initiated in ...

and the Society of Industrial Engineers in 1936, where he was succeeded by

William H. Gesell William H. Gesell (June 8, 1890 – June 6, 1956) was an American engineer, business executive and director of Lehn & Fink Products Corporation in Bloomfield, New Jersey, now Sterling Drug. He served as the 2nd president of the Society for Advancem ...

and many other eminent leaders in management practice and education in the following years. From 1920 until his retirement in 1961 he worked in the publishing industry at both

McGraw Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

(1920-1925) and

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins, based in New York City. Founded in New York in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John, the company operated as J. & J. Harper until 1833, when ...

as an editor of business, social science and economics books and director of the organization.

Contributions (partial)

Tead authored or co-authored over 20 books and numerous monographs, book chapters, and articles for professional publications. In 1920, Tead and Henry C. Metcalf wrote ''Personnel Administration: its principles and practices'', the first college level textbook in this emerging field and he served as a thought leader and advocate in the discipline's formative years up through the early 1930's. In 1939, Tead published ''New Adventures in Democracy'', where he noted the growing realization of the need for subordination of personal ambition to collective action, such as in labor unions, and this collaboration to the advance of individual, group and societal welfare in a democracy; linking his work in personnel administration and industrial relations to public policy. Tead's book, ''The Art of Administration'' (1951), has been called his "magnum opus" where he contributed important insights on management and social philosophy. Much ahead of his time, Tead was an early advocate of

participative management Participatory management is the practice of empowering members of a group, such as employees of a company or citizens of a community, to participate in organizational decision making. It is used as an alternative to traditional vertical management ...

and

employee empowerment Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming strong ...

and argued for seeing employees as organizational stakeholders. He was also an early proponent of

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business industry self-regulation, self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropy, philanthropic, activist, or chari ...

arguing for the alignment of corporate aims with those of society and managers as agents of

social change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Sustained at a larger scale, it may lead to social transformation or societal transformat ...

Publications

Books, a selection * Tead, Ordway.
Instincts in industry, a study of working-class psychology
'. 1918 * Tead, Ordway, and Henry Clayton Metcalf.
Personnel administration: its principles and practice
'. No. 18. McGraw-Hill Book Company, inc., 1920. * Tead, Ordway. '' The art of leadership.'' (1935). * Tead, Ordway. ''New Adventures in Democracy: Practical Applications in the Democratic Idea'' * Tead, Ordway. '' The art of administration.'' (1951). * Tead, Ordway. '' Human nature and management''. Arno Press, 1977. ; ;Articles, a selection * Tead, Ordway,
Trade Unions and Efficiency
" American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 22, No.1. (July 1916), p. 30-37. * Tead, Ordway. " The War's Effects on English Trade Unions," ''The Journal of Political Economy'', Vol.26, No.2, (Feb. 1918), p. 125-135. * Tead, Ordway. " The British Reconstruction Programs," ''Political Science Quarterly'', Vol.33, No.1. (Mar. 1918), p. 56-76.* * Tead, Ordway. " The Problem of Graduate Training in Personnel Administration," ''The Journal of Political Economy'', Vol.29, No.5. (May 1921), p. 353-367 * Tead, Ordway. "Autobiographical essay" in Finkelstein, L. (ed.) '' Thirteen Americans: Their Spiritual Autobiographies'', Institute for Religious and Social Science, 1953, pp. 15–30

References

External links

Guide to the Ordway Tead Papers
Cornell University * * Quotes by Ordway Tead
Speech by Ordway Tead
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tead, Ordway 1891 births 1973 deaths Columbia University faculty 20th-century American educators American organizational theorists American business executives Amherst College alumni People from Somerville, Massachusetts