Discontinuities in Kurt Lewin's psychology of work

MEL VAN ELTEREN DISCONTINUITIES IN KURT LEWIN'S PSYCHOLOGY OF WORK : CONCEPTUAL AND CULTURAL SHIFTS BETWEEN HIS GERMAN AND AMERICAN RESEARCH This paper focuses on the specific variant of psychology of work first put forward by Kurt Lewin in the 1920s in Germany and then contrasts it with Lewin's work conducted in the late 1930s in the American industrial setting, after his flight from Nazi Germany in 1933. Two central questions are raised : Did Lewin's approach comprise an adequate theoretical framework for studying the problematics of the actual work process ? And to what extent did this perspective constitute a control device for management ? After an overview of Lewin' s activities within this field, both in his Berlin period and his American years, a critical analysis of his approach of action research in American industry is given. Taking an emancipatory perspective on the psychosocial sciences, this would lead to a generally negative appraisal of Lewinian action research in industrial settings, concerning its coexisting "democratic*' and manipulative tendencies. In this respect, a discontinuity is discerned in comparison with his earlier Berlin-period ideas about the psychology of work. In addition, suggestions are given for a more adequate conceptualization and research strategy regarding the study of the work process

Conceptualization · Epistemology · German · Industrial and organizational psychology · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy

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