The passing of George Strauss, it could be argued, marks the end of a generation of pioneering and ground breaking academic researchers in industrial relations and the world of work.
George left an extraordinary legacy of research and publication in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management. Not only was he a leader in the establishment and development of these fields but also he was a truly interdisciplinary scholar whose research and teaching crossed the disciplinary boundaries of Sociology, Organisational Behaviour, Economics and History.
George Strauss was born and grew up in Staten Island, New York, during the Great Depression. He wrote: ‘the sight of people begging and selling apples in the street greatly bothered me. what right did I have to eat so regularly?’.’
As a result, a strong concern for social justice motivated George throughout his life. In his memoir he wrote, somewhat ‘tongue in cheek’, that ‘in fifth grade (at school), I read “The New Russian Primer” and became a communist for about a year.but then in sixth grade, I read Bellamy’s “Looking Backward” and so I became a Fabian Socialist’.
He gained his PhD in Economics and Social Science from MIT in 1951, was a post doctoral scholar at Cornell and taught at the University of Buffalo from 1954–1961, before being appointed a Professor at the Haas Business School at the University of California, Berkeley in 1961. He remained at Berkeley for over thirty years and thereafter continued to teach and research as an Emeritus Professor well into his 80s.
George’s first book, with Leonard Sayles, was ‘The Local Union’ in 1952. Later, with Sayles, he published ‘Personnel: The Human Problems of Management’ in 1960. This book was revised and published for many decades, and became the standard textbook on HRM. He retained his interest in unions, but later became one of the early advocates of worker and organisational participation and in particular worker co-operatives. Another landmark edited book was on research methods (with Keith Whitfield) entitled ‘Researching the Work of Work: Strategies and Methods of Studying Industrial Relations’
Among his many accomplishments are included: Director of the Institute of Industrial Relations and Associate Dean of the Business School at University of California Berkeley, recipient of a prestigious University Citation from Berkeley, editor of ‘Industrial Relations’, President of the Industrial Relations Research Association, and member of numerous editorial advisory boards of major journals around the world
George Strauss, like many great scholars of his era, was not bound by disciplinary boundaries or a narrow research methodology. He was a master of the case study method that he believed could best capture complex social situations and power relations in a way that quantitative analysis, increasingly favoured by his economist colleagues, could not.
George was often controversial. He was critical of research which did not contribute to the well-being of workers, organisations or the broader society. Writing about the direction of research in Organisational Behaviour, compared to its early beginnings, he wrote: ‘Back in the 1940s, the field was relevant in part because it didn’t know how to be rigorous. Today, rigour has largely replaced relevance – or at least immediate relevance’. But he was not without hope: ‘In the long run, new research may make OB more relevant that it has ever before, just as cell biology is more relevant to the physician today, than are medicine dances, even though the latter were designed for immediate application’
What many researchers and students feared most was George’s sometimes forensic and critical assessment of research that was flawed, pretentious or worse, pedestrian. George was direct, honest and open on first meeting. This was a refreshing but sometimes confronting experience for people who did not know George. What was always apparent was George’s thirst for ideas and answers to many issues around the world of work. George had the insight and curiosity which often enabled him to be among the first in his field to identify issues or problems worth exploring.
George and his wife Helene began a long and happy association with Australia and New Zealand in 1979 as a Fulbright Scholar He returned in 1986 as a Visiting Professor at the University of Sydney where he saved and reinvigorated the Department of Industrial Relations which was in danger of being reintegrated into the Department of Economics. During this period, George established life-long friendships and collaboration with academics in Australia and New Zealand, making a number of return visits.
George Strauss was a mentor, inspiration and friend to many young and established academics around the world. His enthusiasm and interest also extended to the natural and built environment. His humility, combined with a rather ‘lived in’ relaxed appearance and manner, belied a fierce intellect that made him one of the most memorable and important scholars in his field and of his generation.