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In 1961, Fritz Roethlisberger, coauthor of the landmark Hawthorne studies, wrote a memorandum sketching his understanding of the nascent field of organizational behavior. The memo's purpose was to discuss the relationships of theory and practice in the field, identifying in particular some of the tensions and contradictions that the field poses for the relations of theory and practice. This article reprints Roethlisberger's memo in its entirety and comments point for point on the contemporary relevance of his assertions about the relations of theory and practice. Roethlisberger's observations are even more relevant today than they were in 1961, given the growth of academic theory and research in organizational behavior and the explosion in organizations of ever more complex and intractable problems of managerial leadership. The article will be of interest to anyone interested in the relations of theory and practice and particularly to younger scholars who are shaping their research programs and teaching philosophies.
Keywords: F. J. Roethlisberger; theory and practice; organizational behavior; conceptual schema; management challenges
The memorandum that constitutes the core of the following essay is something I have been carrying around with me for 45 years. I have had numerous occasions to refer to it for one purpose or another. When I was invited to contribute to this special issue of Journal of Management Education, I immediately knew what I wanted to write about-this memo and its relevance for our work today. The resulting essay has truly been a labor of love. I vividly remember the day when Fritz Roethlisberger handed it out in his doctoral seminar. With considerable intensity, he spoke of what it meant to him, of the importance of the issues that the memo raises. I don't recall that he ever talked about it again. I don't know what its impact on his colleagues was. But mainly in the essay that follows, I hope I have honored his memory and succeeded in conveying the contemporary importance of the issues this memo raises.
No doubt Roethlisberger would have found it greatly amusing and a little ironic that one football season could have achieved something that he probably had to repeatedly explain throughout his life-how to pronounce and spell his name. But comparisons of Fritz and Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback of the...