Philip Best

30 August 2001

Marc Brodsky (via e-mail)

CEO and Executive Director

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse

College Park, Maryland 20740

Dear Dr. Brodsky:

Please add my name to the list of those protesting the firing of Jeff Schmidt from Physics Today. I would like to address a broader issue raised in connection with that incident; the non-training of physics managers in industry and academia. My belief is that managers generally "wing it," perhaps practicing techniques with which they were managed (this suggestion is an extension of the oft-made observation "we teach as we were taught," and you know where that has got us to in the classroom). Different styles of management are viewed non-judgmentally so far as outcomes are concerned.

But there are different outcomes for different management styles; there are economic advantages for enterprises using non-hierarchical management styles. A wise scientist I went to work for (with?) in 1965, Bob Broudy, introduced me to The Human Side of Enterprise by Douglas McGregor. This book, first published in 1960, was published in 1985 in a celebratory 25th anniversary printing. It is a classic, still used, as evidenced by the thousands of hits one makes when "douglas mcgregor theory y" is used as the term in a Google search. Very good summaries of the work are available in Web pages amongst the first half-dozen hits.

Most physicists exposed to the evidence described in the book would opt to adapt the style described as theory "y" by McGregor. It surely helps if that is your natural style. Perhaps there is a place for the assigned reading of this book in certain physics courses. If the AIP is to regard itself as a humane and enlightened organization, it should consider McGregor's work as a guide for its own managers. In that case, the chance of a recurrence of an event such as this firing would perhaps be reduced.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Best