TANNENBAUM, Robert 1915-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born June 29, 1915, in Cripple Creek, CO; died of congestive heart failure March 15, 2003, in Carmel, CA. Educator and author. Tannenbaum was a longtime business professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was best known for his research in business leadership. He earned an A.A. from Santa Ana Junior College in 1935 and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago before working as an accounting instructor at what is now Oklahoma State University. He then taught business at the University of Chicago from 1940 to 1942. When World War II started, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving in the South Pacific and attaining the rank of lieutenant. After the war, he returned to the University of Chicago. In 1948, he joined the faculty at UCLA as an assistant professor, becoming a professor of development of human systems in 1971 and retiring in 1977. After retirement, he continued to teach seminars and work as a consultant for several years. Tannenbaum became an influential figure in business research in the 1950s with his ideas about managing employees that were published in his Harvard Business Review article "How to Choose a Leadership Pattern." His work is credited with leading to such concepts as "sensitivity training" and "T-groups." Tannenbaum was the coauthor of Leadership and Organization: A Behavioral Science Approach (1961), and coeditor of Human Systems Development (1985).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2003, p. B19.

Washington Post, March 31, 2003, p. B7.