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Research article
First published December 2007

60 years of Human Relations

Ray Loveridge, Paul Willman, and Stephen DeeryView all authors and affiliations
Volume 60, Issue 12
https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726707084917

Abstract

Human Relations was founded in 1947 as a collaborative transatlantic project between the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London and the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its objective was to encourage theoretical and methodological contributions to the social sciences and to promote their practical application to solve community problems. This article traces the development and evolution of the journal and seeks to assess its contribution to social science research. It examines the intellectual role of the Tavistock Institute and the tensions and pressures that the journal has faced over the past 60 years as it has sought to fulfil its mission and achieve its academic goals.

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1 For a sympathetic account of this tradition and its continued centrality within the work of the Institute, see Neumann (2005).

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Published In

Volume 60, Issue 12
Pages: 1873 - 1888
Article first published: December 2007
Issue published: December 2007

Keywords

  1. action research
  2. Human Relations
  3. integration of the social sciences
  4. organizational behaviour
  5. Tavistock Institute

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