Likert began college at the University of Michigan in engineering, but ended up getting the B.A. in sociology and economics. The
Ph.D. was conferred by Columbia University in 1932; his landmark dissertation, "A technique for the measurement of
attitudes," was published in Archives of Psychology. This dissertation was the basis for development of the Liken Scale, a standard tool of social
scientists. After a brief teaching stint at New York University. Likert worked for the Life Insurance Sales Research Bureau, where his findings from interviews and paper-and-pencil questionnaires resulted in the series Morale and agency management (with J. M.
Willits), a comparative study of the 10 best and 10 mediocre insurance agencies. This study presaged his continuing interest and findings in organizational leadership. In late 1939 Liken was hired by the Division of Program Surveys in the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, where he developed techniques for interviewing, coding, and sampling techniques fundamental to social science research today. His government work during World War II included Office of War Information studies concerning public attitudes, public experiences, and
behavior. His collaboration with Iowa State University led to a method of sampling households which has become known as probability sampling. He and others conducted extensive studies concerning war bonds, alien nationals, and the effects of wartime
bombing. In 1946 with several of his cross-discipline colleagues from those government projects, he was invited to the University of Michigan to establish the Survey Research Center. With the addition of three more centers, it is now called the Institute for Social Research. Liken directed this institute until his retirement in 1970. During that time two of his major books. New patterns of management and The human organization, were published. Another book. New ways of managing conflict, coauthored with his wife Jane Gibson Likert, was published in 1976. These books—and more than 100 journal articles—presented his meta-theoretical statement of participative management, and continued the refinement of conclusions which had begun with his insurance agency work and engaged Likert's attention throughout his life. Upon retiring from the university, he organized a consulting firm which bears his name—Rensis Liken Associates—in which he worked vigorously until his death in 1981, applying research findings in management and organizational areas. |
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