The early history of the Tavistock Institute overlaps with that of the
Tavistock Clinic because many of the staff from the Clinic worked on new, large-scale projects during
World War II, and it was as a result of this work that the institute was established. Working with colleagues in the
Royal Army Medical Corps and the
British Army, they were responsible for innovations such as the
War Office Selection Boards (WOSBs) and
Civil Resettlement Units (CRUs). The group that formed around the WOSBs and CRUs were fascinated by this work with groups and organisations, and sought to continue research in this field after the war. Various influential figures had visited the WOSBs during the war, so there was scope for consultancy work, but the Clinic staff also planned to become a part of the
National Health Service when it was established, and they had been warned that such consultancy and research would not be possible under the auspices of the NHS. Because of this, the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations was created in 1947 to carry out work specifically with organisations once the Clinic was incorporated into the NHS. The
Rockefeller Foundation awarded a significant grant that facilitated the creation of the institute. In the early years, income was derived from research grants, contract work, and fees for professional development courses. During the 1950s and 1960s, the institute carried out a number of signature projects in collaboration with major manufacturing companies including
Unilever, the Ahmedabad Manufacturing and Calico Printing Co.,
Shell,
Bayer, and Glacier Metals. They also conducted work for the
National Coal Board. Particular focuses included management, women in the workplace, and the adoption (or rejection) of new technologies. Projects on the interaction between people and technology later became known as the
sociotechnical approach. The 1950s also saw the institute conducting consumer research and exploring attitudes to things as varied as
Bovril,
fish fingers, coffee and hair. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a notable focus on public health organisations such as hospitals. Studies examined a range of aspects of healthcare, from ward management and operating theatres to the organisation of cleaning staff. More recently, the institute has conducted work for the European Commission and British government bodies. were established in the 1950s, and in 1963 the Institute of Operational Research (IOR) was established in conjunction with the British Operational Research Society. The Centre for Organisational and Operational Research (COOR) was created from a merger of the HRC and the IOR in 1979.
Key figures The institute was founded by a group of key figures from the
Tavistock Clinic and British Army psychiatry including
Elliott Jaques,
Henry Dicks, Leonard Browne, Ronald Hargreaves,
John Rawlings Rees, Mary Luff and
Wilfred Bion, with
Tommy Wilson as chairman. Many of the members of the Tavistock Institute went on to play major roles in psychology.
John Rawlings Rees became first president of the
World Federation for Mental Health. A.K. Rice did considerable work on problems of management, increasing productivity at one factory by 300%. Eric Miller became director of the
Group Relation Program in 1969, and in this function he later developed the design of the
Nazareth-Conferences. The Tavistock Institute became known as a major proponent in Britain for psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic theories of
Sigmund Freud and his followers. Other names associated with the Tavistock include
Melanie Klein,
Carl Gustav Jung,
J. A. Hadfield,
Charles Rycroft,
Enid Mumford and
R. D. Laing. ==Tavistock for the workplace==