Employee Attitude Testing at Sears, Roebuck and Company, 1938–1960

Bibliographic Data

ID9624941
AuthorsSanford M Jacoby (School of International Relations, corresponding author)
Year1986
Volume60
Issue4
Pages602-632
Publication date1986-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Business History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-6805 • E-ISSN: 2044-768X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3115660
OpenAlexW2011004932
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited29

Despite recent interest in the history of the American worker, relatively little attention has been paid to the evolution of corporate employment and labor relations practices, particularly in the nonunion sector. In this article, Professor Jacoby examines the employee attitude testing program at Sears, Roebuck and Company and places it in a larger historical context as well as in the narrower framework of developments in personnel relations. During the 1940s and 1950s the Sears program was one of the most innovative and sophisticated applications of behavioral science to workplace problems, and it served as a model for many other companies. Although the testing program was developed as part of an ongoing effort to forestall unionization, it also had a research component that made important contributions to a number of academic disciplines, particularly organizational theory and industrial sociology

Business · Context (archaeology · Economics · Management · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · History · Industrial relations · Management Theory and Practice · Marketing · Industrial Relations

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