The Old Days, Hot Groups, and Managers' Lib

Abstract

My thanks to Jean Lipman-Blumen for many helpful ideas and criticisms. This essay describes McGregor's group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the forties and the group at Carnegie's Graduate School of Industrial Administration in the sixties, both of which showed the lively, task-obsessed characteristics of groups. Both totally occupied the hearts and minds of their participants, both held to high standards, and both were extremely productive. While such innovating groups arise in many other places, they have long been suppressed within traditional organizations. Now they are beginning to sprout even in those unwelcoming environments, as the fast-changing world forces organizations to loosen structures and liberate managers. Researchers might well study the conditions supportive of hot groups' growth in large organizations, including our academic institutions.'