Harold L. Wilensky (March 3, 1923 – October 30, 2011) was an American organizational sociologist, noted among other things for his pioneering work on organizational intelligence. He was Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

and the author of 13 books and 70 articles. He was born in

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

, in 1923 and died in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, in 2011.

Education

Wilensky attended Antioch College during 1942 and again 1945-47, where he majored in economics and political science. His collegiate years were interrupted by a term of service in the United States Air Force. Wilensky had been working with many labor unions, and originally went to the University of Chicago for a full-time job doing union leadership training. He ended up attending the University of Chicago for graduate school, completing a PhD in sociology in 1955. When he arrived at Chicago, the person he was replacing suggested he get a degree while he was at the University. He originally planned to continue to study economics. When he went to the economics department to inquire about continuing his education,

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...

, a young assistant professor and graduate advisor, asked him what he'd being reading that would qualify him as an economist. When he responded with

Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

Karl Mannheim Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was an influential Hungarian sociologist during the first half of the 20th century. He is a key figure in classical sociology, as well as one of the founders of the sociolo ...

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...

Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was a Norwegian-American economist and sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known critic of capitalism. In his best-known book, ''The Theory of the Leisure Class'' ...

, and

Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at Ha ...

, Friedman said "You're not an economist, you're a sociologist. You should go upstairs and see the sociologists." His dissertation was titled: ''The Staff "expert": A Study of the Intelligence Function in American Trade Unions.'' Writing about the Bay of Pigs debacle in his classic work “Organizational Intelligence” (1967), Wilensky wrote that “The more secrecy, the smaller the intelligent audience, the less systematic the distribution and indexing of research, the greater the anonymity of authorship, and the more intolerant the attitude toward deviant views.” He also argued that organizational intelligence benefited from healthy argument and constructive rivalry.

Works

* ''The Professionalization of Everyone?'' (University of Chicago Press, 1964). * With Charles N. Lebeaux. ''Industrial Society and Social Welfare'' (Russell Sage, 1958 hb; Free Press Macmillan, 1965 enl. edn.pb) * '' Organizational Intelligence: Knowledge and Policy in Government and Industry'' (Basic Books, 1967,1969) * ''The Welfare State and Equality'' (California, 1975) * ''Democratic Corporatism and Policy Linkages'' (Institute of Governmental Studies, 1987) * ''Intellectuals in Labor Unions'' (Free Press, 1956) * ''Rich Democracies: Political Economy, Public Policy, and Performance'' (University of California Press, 2002). * ''American Political Economy in Global Perspective'' (Cambridge, 2012).

References

External links

* American sociologists University of Chicago alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Scientists from New Rochelle, New York 1923 births 2011 deaths {{US-sociologist-stub