Background
Nevis was born in Brooklyn on May 20, 1926.
Nevis was born in Brooklyn on May 20, 1926.
He earned an undergraduate degree from City College of New York, a Master"s from Columbia University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Western Reserve University.
He co-founded the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and founded the Gestalt International Study Center, and was a faculty member in management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. Nevis taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management for almost 17 years. He directed the Program for Senior Executives.
In 1956 he was one of the founders of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.
He was its president until 1973 and created its Organizational & System Development and International OSD programs. He died of lymphoma in Wellfleet on May 20, 2011, his 85th birthday.
In 1981, while teaching organization psychology in a management program in Shanghai, Nevis"s observation of individuals there led him to conclude that their hierarchy of needs differed from that propounded by Abraham Maslow, which was based on American culture, and to formulate a Chinese hierarchy, Nevis"s hierarchy of needs. The Gestalt International Study Center is unusual in working with couples, groups, and organizations in an experiential and not solely therapeutic manner.
Nevis characterized it as a "hands-on goal is to create tools that will enrich our participants" lives with greater self awareness, interpersonal and professional skills."
Nevis"s Organizational Consulting: A Gestalt Approach (1987) was his "signature book".
He regarded the need hierarchies of different cultures as classifiable with reference to an individualism-collectivism dimension and an ego-social dimension.