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Fred Emery

Frederick Edmund Emery (27 August 1925 – 10 April 1997) was an Australian psychologist. He was a prominent early figure in the field of organizational development, particularly in the development of the theory around participative work design structures such as self-managing teams.[1]

Frederick Edmund Emery
Born27 August 1925
Narrogin, Western Australia
Died10 April 1997
EducationBSc Hons (Psychology), University of Western Australia, 1946. PhD (Psychology), University of Melbourne, 1953.
Occupationpsychologist academic

For the footballer, see Fred Emery (footballer). For the British television investigative journalist, see Fred Emery (journalist).

Biography

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Emery was born in Narrogin, Western Australia, as the son of a drover. He left school as the Dux of Freemantle Boys' High in Western Australia at age 14. He gained his honors degree in science from the University of Western Australia in 1946 and joined the teaching staff of the department in 1947.[2] He subsequently spent nine years on the staff of the Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne, where he obtained his Ph. D. in 1953. During 1951–52, he held a UNESCO Fellowship in social sciences and was attached to the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in the UK.[3] As a staff member at the University of Melbourne, he made contributions to rural sociology, CPA, and the effects of film and television viewing.[4]

In 1957, Emery left Australia for London to join the staff of the Tavistock Institute,[5] where he did the majority of his early work. He worked with Eric Trist on the concept of sociotechnical systems in 1951–52 as a UNESCO Research Fellow, subsequently publishing "The Characteristics of Sociotechnical Systems" in 1959.[6]

Constantly drawn towards testing social science theory in field settings, he, Eric Trist, one of his closest intellectual collaborators, and other colleagues, established "open socio-technical systems theory" as an alternative paradigm for organizational design – field-tested on a national scale in Norway, in partnership with Einar Thorsrud.[7]

After his return to Australia he set about developing a new method to bring in jointly optimized Sociotechnical Systems, designed for the diffusion of the concept rather than proof of an alternative to autocracy in the workplace. That method - called the Participative Design Workshop - has been used in Australia and many other countries since 1971, and replaced the older 9 step method used in Norway.[8]

Sociotechnical systems are part of a comprehensive theoretical framework called Open Systems Theory (OST). Two of Emery's and Trist's key publications were: "The Causal Texture of Organisational Environments" (1965)[9] and "Towards a Social Ecology" (1972). These publications are the groundwork on which Fred Emery developed OST.[10]

Emery returned to Australia in 1969 and went to the Australian National University (ANU). He was a senior research fellow there until November 1979, initially in the Department of Sociology, RSSS, and then from 1974 at the Centre for Continuing Education. He had also been visiting professor in Social Systems Science at Wharton's Department of Social Systems Sciences, spending 1967–68 at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.[3]

Emery was awarded the first Elton Mayo award in 1988 by the Australian Psychological Society and received a DSc from Macquarie University in 1992.[3]

At the ANU, Emery continued his action research in industry and the public sector, developing new tools for the diffusion of democracy in organizations and communities. He also attended to a backlog of writing. Within the next 10 years he authored, co-authored, or edited 10 books for publication, and published approximately 30 papers.[3]

In 1979, when his CCE Fellowship expired, unsuccessful efforts were made by some of his colleagues to find a permanent post for him at the ANU. Instead, Emery became one of Australia's outstanding Independent Scholars. By 1985 he published at least another 15 journal articles (a flow which continued to his last year); governments, enterprises, students, universities, and many others continued to seek his expertise. He later continued as a consultant. During this later period, he and Merrelyn Emery refined the Search Conference participative planning process (designed by Fred Emery and Eric Trist in 1958). In the final two years of his life, he co-edited the third and final volume of the "Tavistock anthology", published by the University of Pennsylvania Press: The Social Engagement of Social Science.[11]

Emery died at his home on 10 April 1997, at the age of 71 in Canberra, Australia.[1]

Summary of his work

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Emery had a prime interest in the nature of work; in particular, how people organized themselves, the machines, and other resources with which they worked, to achieve their goals, maintain their ideals and values, in the face of what he recognized as "turbulent environments".

He both contributed to, and was written about in Business Review Weekly (later BRW, ultimately absorbed by AFR).[12] There, Emery was quoted as having said: "I am inclined to agree with Max Born, the German physicist, who reckoned that the acceptance of a new quantum theory would occur only with the passing away of the old physics professors. The acceptance will await a new generation that starts off with a question mark."[13]

In 1975 Fred and Merrelyn Emery published a book which, among other things, discussed the neurological effects of television viewing.[14] In response to a press article about the book in a university publication,[15] six professors and heads of departments (zoology, physiology, pharmacology, psychology, neurobiology, behavioral biology) wrote a letter[16] criticizing the book and its authors. In it, they outlined what they considered to be "the current limits of scientifically acceptable investigation of the nervous system". After criticizing the Emerys and their work, they concluded the article about the Emery's book "reflects upon the standards of brain research done in this University by those who are in it for the sake of finding out how a nervous system really works rather than for the support or refutation of a particular social issue". However, not only had they not read the Emery's book, but their specific criticisms did not stand up to scrutiny.[17]

He also edited for Penguin two volumes of readings called Systems Thinking (the initial volume was reprinted six times), which have been a staple resource on the origins and development of open systems thinking throughout the life sciences.[citation needed]

Publications

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Book, a selection:[18]

  • 1969. Systems thinking. (Ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
  • 1969. Form and content in industrial democracy. With E. Thorsrud, London: Tavistock.
  • 1972. On Purposeful Systems: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Individual and Social Behavior as a System of Purposeful Events. With Russell Ackoff. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.
  • 1973. Hope within walls. With M. Emery. Canberra: Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University.
  • 1976. Choice of futures: To enlighten or inform (Part III). With M. Emery. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.
  • 1976. Living at Work With Chris Phillips. Australian Government Printing Service.
  • 1976. Democracy at work. With E. Thorsrud, Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.
  • 1977. Futures we are in. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.
  • 1978. Emergence of a new paradigm of work. Canberra: Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University.
  • 1980. Domestic market segments for the telephone. With M. Emery, PA Consultants.
  • 1981. Open systems thinking. Volumes I & II. Penguin.
  • 1989. Towards real democracy. Toronto: Ontario QWL Centre, Ministry of Labour.
  • 1991. Attitudes towards Centres for Professional Development at the University of New England. With M. Emery. Lismore: UNE.NR.

Papers and articles, a selection:[19]

  • Emery, F. & Trist, E. (1965). The causal texture of organizational environments. Human Relations, 18, 21–32.
  • Emery, F. (1972). "Research and higher education". In G. S. Harman and C. Selby-Smith (Eds.), Australian higher education. Melbourne: Angus & Robertson.
  • Emery, F. (1975). "Continuing education under a gum-tree". Aust. J. of Adult Education, 17–19.
  • Emery, F. (1978). "Youth-vanguard: Victims or the new vandals?" In F. E. Emery (Ed.), Limits to choice. Canberra: Centre for Continuing Education Australian National University.
  • Emery, F. (1978). "The fifth wave? Embarking on the next forty years". In F. E. Emery (Ed.), Limits to choice. Canberra: Centre for Continuing Education Australian National University.
  • Emery, F. (1980, Autumn). "Communications for a sustainable society". Human Futures, 1–7.
  • Emery, F. (April 1992). "The Australian experience". Paper presented to Tusiad Symposium national Participation and Consensus, Istanbul.

References

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  1. ^ a b Alastair Crombie (1997) "Emery, Frederick Edmund (Fred) (1925–1997)" in ANU Reporter, 21 May 1997, p 7.
  2. ^ "FRED EMERY: THE MAN WHO REFORMED THE WORKPLACE". Australian Financial Review. 4 September 1992. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d Bawden, Richard, "Frederick Edmund (Fred) Emery (1925–1997)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 17 October 2024
  4. ^ "Search Results | National Library of Australia". catalogue.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  5. ^ "Papers of Fred and Merrelyn Emery". Trove. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  6. ^ Emery, Fred (31 January 1993), Trist, Eric; Murray, Hugh; Trist, Beulah (eds.), "Characteristics of Socio-Technical Systems", The Social Engagement of Social Science, Volume 2, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, doi:10.9783/9781512819052-009, ISBN 978-1-5128-1905-2, retrieved 17 October 2024
  7. ^ Appelbaum, Steven H. (August 1997). "Socio‐technical systems theory: an intervention strategy for organizational development". Management Decision. 35 (6): 452–463. doi:10.1108/00251749710173823. ISSN 0025-1747.
  8. ^ Emery, Fred; Emery, Merrelyn (7 April 2016), "The Participative Design Workshop", The Participative Design Workshop, University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 599–613, doi:10.9783/9781512819052-035/html?lang=en, ISBN 978-1-5128-1905-2, retrieved 17 October 2024
  9. ^ Emery, F. E.; Trist, E. L. (February 1965). "The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments". Human Relations. 18 (1): 21–32. doi:10.1177/001872676501800103. ISSN 0018-7267. S2CID 145176004.
  10. ^ Emery, Merrelyn (2000). "[No title found]". Systemic Practice and Action Research. 13 (5): 623–643. doi:10.1023/A:1009577509972.
  11. ^ "The Social Engagement of Social Science, a Tavistock Anthology, Volume 3 – Penn Press". University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  12. ^ "Search". Australian Financial Review. 20 April 1988. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  13. ^ Fred Emery (1992) in: Business review weekly Vol 14, Nr. 34-37. p. 64.
  14. ^ Fred Emery and Merrelyn Emery, A choice of futures: to enlighten or inform, Canberra: Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, 1975.
  15. ^ Anon, "CCE study: television socially, physically dangerous", ANU reporter, 6, 22 August 1975, pp. 1, 4–5.
  16. ^ S. A. Barnett et al., letter, ANU reporter, 6, 26 September 1975, p. 11.
  17. ^ red Emery and Merrelyn Emery, letter, ANU reporter, 6, 26 September 1975, p. 11.
  18. ^ His collection of over 700 unpublished papers and letters is held by the Australian National Library.
  19. ^ "Papers of Fred and Merrelyn Emery". Trove. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
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