Eric Trist
Encyclopedia
Eric Trist was a British scientist and leading figure in the field of Organizational development (OD). He was one of the founders of the Tavistock Institute
for Social Research in London.
, England, where he experienced dramatic air raids in the first world war
. He went to Cambridge University
- Pembroke College
in 1928, where he read English Literature, graduating with first-class honours. Influenced heavily by his don I. A. Richards
he became interested in Psychology
, Gestalt psychology
, and Psychoanalysis
, and went on to read psychology under professor Bartlett
. At that time (1932/3) Trist has said he was very interested in articles by Kurt Lewin
. When Kurt Lewin (who was Jewish) left Germany
as Adolf Hitler
came to power, he travelled to Israel via the USA, stopping off in England, where Trist briefly met him and showed him around Cambridge.
Trist graduated in Psychology in 1933, with a distinction, and went to Yale University
in the USA
and again met Lewin, who was at Cornell University
and then Iowa
. He visited B. F. Skinner
, a key figure in Behaviourism in Boston. After witnessing some disturbing experiences during the Depression
, he became politically interested for the first time, and read Karl Marx
.
Returning to England in 1935, Trist met Oscar Oeser, who headed the psychology department at the University of St Andrews
, Scotland
, and went on to study unemployment in Dundee
.
At the outbreak of the second world war
Trist became a clinical psychologist
at the Maudsley Hospital
, London, treating war casualties from Dunkirk. He recalls how, in 1940, in the London blitz, "some very frightened people came out of their rooms, ran all over the grounds and we had to go and find them." The Maudsley, at Mill Hill, was a teaching hospital, and Trist attended seminars and met people from the Tavistock Clinic
, whom he was keen to join. Opposed by his boss, Sir Aubrey Lewis, who wouldn't let him go, he joined the Tavistock group in the army, as a way of getting free, and was replaced by Hans Eysenck
. Trist went to Edinburgh
and worked on the war office selection boards (WOSB), with Jock Sutherland
and Wilfred Bion
. For the last two years of the war, Trist was chief psychologist to the civil resettlements units (CRUs
) for repatriated prisoners of war, working to schemes devised by Tommy Wilson
and Wilfred Bion. He described this as "probably the most exciting single experience of my professional life".
In July 1966, following the death of his first wife, and marriage to Beulah, Trist moved to America as Professor of Organizational Behavior and Social Ecology in the Graduate School of Business Administration at UCLA. Then he moved to Canada
and back to England, where Sir Hugh Beaver, the Chairman of the Tavistock Council, wanted the Institute to take a public position on social science issues with involvement of the OECD and UNESCO
.
In the 1990s Trist wrote a three-volume account of the Tavistock, along with Hugh Murray and Fred Emery, The Social Engagement of Social Science. He died on 4 June 1993.
, whom he met first 1933 in Cambridge, England. Kurt Lewin had moved from studying behaviour to engineering its change, particularly in relation to racial and religious conflicts, inventing sensitivity training
, a technique for making people more aware of the effect they have on others, which some claim as the beginning of political correctness
.
This would later influence the direction of much of work at the Tavistock Institute
, in the direction of management and, some would say, manipulation, rather than fundamental research into human behaviour and the psyche. It was a partnership between Trist's group at the Tavistock, and Lewin's at MIT that launched the Journal 'Human Relations' just before Lewin's death in 1947.
as chairman, with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation
in February 1946, and a new Tavistock Clinic
became part of the newly formed National Health Service
. Many of the group went into formal Psychoanalytic training
.
Trist was much influenced by Melanie Klein
, who visited the Tavistock, as well as by his colleagues John Bowlby
, Donald Winnicott
, Wilfred Bion
and Jock Sutherland
. Though close to Wilfred Bion during the war, Trist later wrote that he was glad he did not join Bion at this point, because "he left groups in the 1950s – which flummoxed everybody – and got completely absorbed in psychoanalysis", adding, "that was when the cult of Bion – a wrong cult in my view – became established."
Trist and the Tavistock became involved in industrial projects until 1951, and was given the Lewin Award in 1951. The family discussion group was formed, and John Bowlby did his world-famous studies on mother-child separation and the establishment of family systems therapy. With cooperation and contributions from Kurt Lewin in the USA, the publication of Human Relations, the Tavistock Journal began, and Trist commented that this gave the Tavistock credibility in the USA, saying, "its articles wouldn't have been accepted by any of the other British psychological journals".
on developing the Socio-Technical Systems
approach to work design
.
Tavistock Institute
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British charity concerned with group behaviour and organisational behaviour. It was launched in 1946, when it separated from the Tavistock Clinic.-History of the Tavistock:...
for Social Research in London.
Biography
Trist was born in September 1909 (according to his autobiography), of a Cornish father and a Scottish mother. He grew up in DoverDover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
, England, where he experienced dramatic air raids in the first world war
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He went to Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
- Pembroke College
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
in 1928, where he read English Literature, graduating with first-class honours. Influenced heavily by his don I. A. Richards
I. A. Richards
Ivor Armstrong Richards was an influential English literary critic and rhetorician....
he became interested in Psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies...
, and Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, and went on to read psychology under professor Bartlett
Frederic Bartlett
Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett FRS was a British psychologist and the first professor of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge. He was one of the forerunners of cognitive psychology...
. At that time (1932/3) Trist has said he was very interested in articles by Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin
Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology....
. When Kurt Lewin (who was Jewish) left Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
as Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
came to power, he travelled to Israel via the USA, stopping off in England, where Trist briefly met him and showed him around Cambridge.
Trist graduated in Psychology in 1933, with a distinction, and went to Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and again met Lewin, who was at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
and then Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
. He visited B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, baseball enthusiast, social philosopher and poet...
, a key figure in Behaviourism in Boston. After witnessing some disturbing experiences during the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, he became politically interested for the first time, and read Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
.
Returning to England in 1935, Trist met Oscar Oeser, who headed the psychology department at the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and went on to study unemployment in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
.
At the outbreak of the second world war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Trist became a clinical psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
at the Maudsley Hospital
Maudsley Hospital
The Maudsley Hospital is a British psychiatric hospital in South London. The Maudsley is the largest mental health training institution in the country...
, London, treating war casualties from Dunkirk. He recalls how, in 1940, in the London blitz, "some very frightened people came out of their rooms, ran all over the grounds and we had to go and find them." The Maudsley, at Mill Hill, was a teaching hospital, and Trist attended seminars and met people from the Tavistock Clinic
Tavistock Institute
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British charity concerned with group behaviour and organisational behaviour. It was launched in 1946, when it separated from the Tavistock Clinic.-History of the Tavistock:...
, whom he was keen to join. Opposed by his boss, Sir Aubrey Lewis, who wouldn't let him go, he joined the Tavistock group in the army, as a way of getting free, and was replaced by Hans Eysenck
Hans Eysenck
Hans Jürgen Eysenck was a German-British psychologist who spent most of his career in Britain, best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas...
. Trist went to Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and worked on the war office selection boards (WOSB), with Jock Sutherland
Jock Sutherland
Dr. John Bain "Jock" Sutherland, D.D.S., was an American football coach. He coached college football at Lafayette College and the University of Pittsburgh and professional football for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Steelers...
and Wilfred Bion
Wilfred Bion
Wilfred Ruprecht Bion DSO was an influential British psychoanalyst, who became president of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 1962 to 1965....
. For the last two years of the war, Trist was chief psychologist to the civil resettlements units (CRUs
Crus
Crus is the portion of the body starting from the ankle and ending at the knee. It is sometimes known as the gaiter...
) for repatriated prisoners of war, working to schemes devised by Tommy Wilson
Tommy Wilson
Thomas Lee “Tommy” Wilson is a former professional American football player.-Pro career:Wilson played running back for eight seasons in the NFL.-Personal:...
and Wilfred Bion. He described this as "probably the most exciting single experience of my professional life".
In July 1966, following the death of his first wife, and marriage to Beulah, Trist moved to America as Professor of Organizational Behavior and Social Ecology in the Graduate School of Business Administration at UCLA. Then he moved to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and back to England, where Sir Hugh Beaver, the Chairman of the Tavistock Council, wanted the Institute to take a public position on social science issues with involvement of the OECD and UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
.
In the 1990s Trist wrote a three-volume account of the Tavistock, along with Hugh Murray and Fred Emery, The Social Engagement of Social Science. He died on 4 June 1993.
Influences of Kurt Lewin
Trist was heavily influenced by Kurt LewinKurt Lewin
Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology....
, whom he met first 1933 in Cambridge, England. Kurt Lewin had moved from studying behaviour to engineering its change, particularly in relation to racial and religious conflicts, inventing sensitivity training
Sensitivity training
Sensitivity Training is a form of training that claims to make people more aware of their own prejudices, and more sensitive to others. According to its critics, it involves the use of psychological techniques with groups that its critics, e.g. G. Edward Griffin, claim are often identical to...
, a technique for making people more aware of the effect they have on others, which some claim as the beginning of political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
.
This would later influence the direction of much of work at the Tavistock Institute
Tavistock Institute
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British charity concerned with group behaviour and organisational behaviour. It was launched in 1946, when it separated from the Tavistock Clinic.-History of the Tavistock:...
, in the direction of management and, some would say, manipulation, rather than fundamental research into human behaviour and the psyche. It was a partnership between Trist's group at the Tavistock, and Lewin's at MIT that launched the Journal 'Human Relations' just before Lewin's death in 1947.
The Tavistock group
It was the wartime experiences of Trist and his various associates that created what became known as 'the Tavistock group', which formed a planning committee to meet and plan the future of the Tavistock after the war. The Tavistock Institute was formed, with Trist as deputy chairman, and Tommy WilsonTommy Wilson
Thomas Lee “Tommy” Wilson is a former professional American football player.-Pro career:Wilson played running back for eight seasons in the NFL.-Personal:...
as chairman, with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
in February 1946, and a new Tavistock Clinic
Tavistock Clinic
The in London was founded in 1920 by Dr. Hugh Crichton-Miller, a psychiatrist who developed psychological treatments for shell-shocked soldiers during and after the First World War. The clinic's first patient was, however, a child. Its clinical services were always, therefore, for both children...
became part of the newly formed National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
. Many of the group went into formal Psychoanalytic training
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
.
Trist was much influenced by Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein
Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who devised novel therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis...
, who visited the Tavistock, as well as by his colleagues John Bowlby
John Bowlby
Edward John Mostyn "John" Bowlby was a British psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory.- Family background :...
, Donald Winnicott
Donald Winnicott
Donald Woods Winnicott was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory. He was a leading member of the British Independent Group of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and a close associate of Marion Milner...
, Wilfred Bion
Wilfred Bion
Wilfred Ruprecht Bion DSO was an influential British psychoanalyst, who became president of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 1962 to 1965....
and Jock Sutherland
Jock Sutherland
Dr. John Bain "Jock" Sutherland, D.D.S., was an American football coach. He coached college football at Lafayette College and the University of Pittsburgh and professional football for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Steelers...
. Though close to Wilfred Bion during the war, Trist later wrote that he was glad he did not join Bion at this point, because "he left groups in the 1950s – which flummoxed everybody – and got completely absorbed in psychoanalysis", adding, "that was when the cult of Bion – a wrong cult in my view – became established."
Trist and the Tavistock became involved in industrial projects until 1951, and was given the Lewin Award in 1951. The family discussion group was formed, and John Bowlby did his world-famous studies on mother-child separation and the establishment of family systems therapy. With cooperation and contributions from Kurt Lewin in the USA, the publication of Human Relations, the Tavistock Journal began, and Trist commented that this gave the Tavistock credibility in the USA, saying, "its articles wouldn't have been accepted by any of the other British psychological journals".
Organizational research
In 1949, his organizational research work, studying work crews in a coal mine, with Ken Bamsforth, resulted in the famous article, "Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal Getting."Socio-Technical Systems
Trist also collaborated with Fred EmeryFred Emery
Frederick Edmund Emery, nick Fred, was an Australian psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in the field of Organizational development , particularly in the development of theory around participative work design structures such as self-managing teams. He was widely regarded as one of the finest...
on developing the Socio-Technical Systems
Socio-technical systems
Sociotechnical systems in organizational development is an approach to complex organizational work design that recognizes the interaction between people and technology in workplaces. The term also refers to the interaction between society's complex infrastructures and human behaviour...
approach to work design
Work design
In organizational development , work design is the application of Socio-Technical Systems principles and techniques to the humanization of work....
.
Publications
- Trist, E., and Bamforth, W., Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Long Wall Method of Coal-Getting, ín: Human Relations, Vol. 4, 3-38, 1951.
- Trist, E., and Sofer, C., Exploration in Group Relations, Leicester, Leicester University Press, 1959.
- Emery F. and Trist E., The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments, in: Human Relations, Vol 18 (1) p21-32, 1965.
- Emery F. and Trist E., Toward a Social Ecology, 1972.
- Trist, Eric L. et al., The Social Engagement of Social Science: A Tavistock Anthology : The Socio-Ecological Perspective (Tavistock Anthology), University of Pennsylvania, May 1997. ISBN 0-8122-8194-2
External links
- Tavistock homepage.
- Eric Trist Biographical page.
- The Foundation and Development of the Tavistock Institute to 1989 by Eric Trist and Hugh Murray.
- Eric Trist works.
- Eric Trist Papers.