Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • March 2017
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Intellectual Ambition at Harvard Business School: Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Amram Migdal
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:17
ShareBar

Abstract

This case, set in the 1920s and 1930s, discusses the contributions of Harvard Business School (HBS) Professors Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger to management research and to the Human Relations Movement in management scholarship. The case focuses on their research program at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works manufacturing plant and the resulting insights, publications, course development, and impact. Brief biographical details of Mayo and Roethlisberger are given, along with a synopsis of the origins of academic research at HBS.

Keywords

Education; Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Executive Education; Higher Education; Interdisciplinary Studies; Learning; History; Business History; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizations; Practice; Relationships; Groups and Teams; Labor and Management Relations; Rank and Position; Research; Social Psychology; Attitudes; Behavior; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Status and Position; Trust; Society; Social Issues; Theory; Education Industry; United States; Massachusetts; Illinois

Citation

Rivkin, Jan W., and Amram Migdal. "Intellectual Ambition at Harvard Business School: Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger." Harvard Business School Case 717-469, March 2017.
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Jan W. Rivkin

Strategy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • Spring 2021
    • Stanford Social Innovation Review (website)

    Building Cities' Collaborative Muscle

    By: Jorrit De Jong, Amy C. Edmondson, Mark Moore, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Jan Rivkin, Eva Flavia Martínez Orbegozo and Santiago Pulido-Gomez
    • March 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Seeding and Selling Asana

    By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie Ma and Amram Migdal
    • February 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Board Director Dilemmas—New Year, New Timing

    By: Suraj Srinivasan, David G. Fubini and Amram Migdal
More from the Authors
  • Building Cities' Collaborative Muscle By: Jorrit De Jong, Amy C. Edmondson, Mark Moore, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Jan Rivkin, Eva Flavia Martínez Orbegozo and Santiago Pulido-Gomez
  • Seeding and Selling Asana By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie Ma and Amram Migdal
  • Board Director Dilemmas—New Year, New Timing By: Suraj Srinivasan, David G. Fubini and Amram Migdal
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College