Chester Irving Barnard

Background

Chester Irving was born on November 7, 1886, in Malden, Massachussets, the son of Charles H. Barnard, a mechanic, and of Mary E. Putnam, who died when young Barnard was five.

Education

He worked his way through Mt. Hermon Academy in Northfield, Massachussets Next he supported himself by tuning pianos. In 1906, Barnard obtained a scholarship to Harvard University, where he led a dance orchestra, typed student papers, and operated a translation service. He left Harvard in 1909 without completing the requirements for a bachelor's degree.

Career

Immediately thereafter he obtained a job at the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT & T) in Boston, working in the foreign statistical section as a translator of German, French, and Italian, languages he learned while attending Harvard. After becoming a commercial engineer with AT & T in 1915, Barnard revised the general commercial practices of the Bell system for greater efficiency. He served as technical adviser on rates to the Rate Commission and Operating Board of the U. S. Telephone Administration during World War I. In 1922 he was appointed assistant vice-president and general manager of the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania. In 1925 he was made vice-president; in 1926, vice-president in charge of operations; and in 1927, president of the newly organized New Jersey Bell Telephone Company. He remained in the last position until his retirement in 1948.

Active in many other fields, Barnard served on numerous civic and welfare boards at the local, state, and national levels. He organized the New Jersey State Emergency Relief Administration in 1931, directing it until 1933 and again in 1935. In November and December 1937 he lectured on "The Functions of the Executive" at Harvard University. The lectures were published as The Functions of the Executive (1938). The book was an outcome of Barnard's failure to find an adequate explanation of his own executive experience in classic organization or economic theory. Frequently reprinted, and translated into Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, and Japanese, the book has become a classic of organization theory. In the less well-known Organization and Management (1948), Barnard presents a basically sociological analysis. While he sought to construct a theoretical framework of organization and the executive function, he recognized the importance of habitual experience, which led to intuitive understanding.

In 1941 Barnard was appointed special assistant secretary of the treasury. In April 1942 he became president of the United Service Organizations for National Defense (USO), the leading agency providing recreational facilities for armed forces personnel during World War II. Under Barnard's leadership (1942 - 1945), the USO grew from 692 units to 2, 723. Barnard described his work with this agency as "the most difficult single organization and management task" in his experience.

Following the war Barnard was appointed a consultant to the United States representative on the United Nations Atomic Energy Committee, and was a coauthor of A Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy (1946), which formed the basis for the policy of the United States on atomic energy. Having been a member of the board of trustees and the executive committee of the Rockefeller Foundation since 1940, he was elected president of the latter and of its General Education Board in 1948. He served until 1952. From 1950 to 1956, Barnard was also chairman of the National Science Board and from 1952 to 1954, he served as chairman of the National Science Foundation.

Achievements

• For his work with the USO and for his directorship of the National War Fund (1943 - 1946), he received the Presidential Medal for Merit in 1946.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The functions of the executive
  • Elementary conditions of business morals (The Barbara Weinstock lecture on the morals of trade)
  • Organization and management, selected papers.
  • Dilemmas of leadership in the democratic process, (Stafford Little lectures)
  • Riot of the unemployed at Trenton, N.J. 1935;: A lecture at Harvard University, 1938-1941, presenting a case in concrete sociology

Membership

He was a member of the Bach Society of New Jersey.

Interests

• Barnard enjoyed golf and swimming. His hobby was music, and he was among the founders of the Bach Society of New Jersey and the Newark Art Theatre.

Connections

On December 6, 1911, he married Grace Frances Noera; they had one daughter.

Father:

Charles Barnard

mechanic

Mother:

Mary Putnam

Wife:

Grace Frances Noera

References

• Philosophy for Managers: Selected Papers of Chester I Barnard
• Chester I. Barnard and the Guardians of the Managerial State
• The Basic Barnard: An Introduction to Chester I. Barnard and His Theories of Organization and Management (ILR paperback)