Friday, May 31, 2013

Lilian Evelyn Gilbreth: Leading the Way in Industrial and Organizational Psychology



Lilian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth was an American industrial engineer and psychologist. She was known as the first female engineer with a Ph.D. and the first industrial and organizational psychologist. Together with her husband Frank, the Gilbreths are experts in human factors and motion study.

Gilbreth was born on May 24, 1878 in Oakland, California. She earned his doctorate degree at Brown University after she failed the compliance requirements of University of California. Her dissertation was entitled “Some Aspects of Eliminating Waste in Teaching”.

While working as an industrial engineer, Gilbreth helped her peers to understand the psychological dimensions of work. She did it through a synthesis of scientific management and psychology. The Gilbreths believed that Frederick Winslow Taylor’s revolutionary ideas were not sufficient and were not easy to implement. They came up with a constructive critique of Taylor’s ideas.

Together with her husband, Gilbreth established the Gilbreth Inc. to provide consulting services in the fields of time and motion. Through this consultancy company, the Gilbreths did in-depth researches in fatigue study and became the forerunners of ergonomics.

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