Seebohm rowntree biography books

Authorized form of name Rowntree, Benjamin Seebohm, , sociologist and manufacturer. Standardized form s of name according to other rules. Related entity Rowntree family of York fl Identifier of related entity. Related entity Rowntree, Joseph, , manufacturer and philanthropist Identifier of related entity. Type of relationship Rowntree, Joseph, , manufacturer and philanthropist is the parent of Rowntree, Benjamin Seebohm, , sociologist and manufacturer.

Related entity Rowntree, Peter, Identifier of related entity. Type of relationship Rowntree, Peter, is the child of Rowntree, Benjamin Seebohm, , sociologist and manufacturer. He visted Japan in , where his name is still held in high esteem today. Education was a life-long concern for Seebohm as for other members of his Quaker family. Adult schools, local schools, libraries, and the principle of education for life were at the heart of his involvement, that was always informed by his religious faith.

Ignore the spiritual life of the nation, and what is left? Only selfish material ends, and selfishness is at the root of every social and industrial evil from which the world suffers. Rowntree was one of the pioneers of large-scale cohort studies of British life.

Seebohm rowntree biography books

He invited Tom Harrisson, the founder of Mass Observation — the social research organisation aimed to record everyday life in Britain — to collect data on gambling. The Rowntrees showed us that a decent standard of living for all is essential if an economy is to grow in the long term, and that better-paid workers can contribute more to business success.

If you would like to make a financial donation to further support our work, it is easy to pay online with or without Gift Aid by clicking the link below. Setting a primary poverty line for which "[e]xpenditure needful for the development of the mortal, moral and social sides of human nature will not be taken into account'' did not mean that he did not recognise the non-subsistence need of the working class.

Rather, he wished to measure a type of poverty that could not be reduced simply by greater "thrift", so as to cast off the contemporary social myth about poverty as one's own fault. In analysing the results of the investigation he found that people at certain stages of life, for example in old age and early childhood, were more likely to be in abject poverty, living below the poverty line, than at other stages of life.

From this he formulated the idea of the poverty cycle [ 11 ] in which some people moved in and out of absolute poverty during their lives. This idea of poverty cycle captured important longitudinal aspects of poverty that were cited later in much other research. Rowntree conducted a further study of poverty in York in under the title Poverty and Progress.

In this study he included allowances for some items which were not strictly necessary for survival, these included newspapers, books, radios, beer, tobacco, holidays, and presents. His results showed that the causes of poverty had changed considerably in a few decades. Despite the inclusion of the extra items, he found that the percentage of his sample population in poverty had dropped to 18 per cent in and to 1.

Rowntree published a third study of York's poverty in under the title Poverty and the Welfare State which was produced in collaboration with his research assistant G. Unlike his other studies of York a sampling technique was used rather than a comprehensive survey, as he had primarily tested its viability in his second York study, though he did not adopt it in the previous time.

By the s, it appeared that absolute poverty was a minor problem although poverty did remain, for example among the elderly, but it was believed that increased welfare benefits would soon eradicate this lingering poverty. The conquest of poverty was put down to an expanding economy as the s were the years of the 'affluent society', to government policies of full employment , and to the success of the welfare state.

It was widely believed that the operation of the welfare state had redistributed wealth from rich to poor and significantly raised working class living standards. David Lloyd George urged Rowntree to write on rural living conditions in Britain: The Land and How the Labourer Lives looked at the living conditions of farming families.

Rowntree argued that an increase in landholdings would make agriculture more productive. His work The Human Needs of Labour argued for family allowances and a national minimum wage , and in The Human Factor in Business , Rowntree argued that business owners should adopt more democratic practices like those at his own factory rather than more autocratic leadership styles.

He expressed his conviction of the possibility of establishing a close-knit community including both the management and the workers. In the study of his later period, English Life and Leisure: A Social Study , he inquired into the ways people spent their relative, newly-found leisure and income; but this work suffered more conceptual difficulties than his former works.

Rowntree was a supporter of the Liberal Party and hoped that his work would influence Liberal politicians. The influence of Rowntree can be seen in the Liberal reforms passed by the Liberals when in power. Poverty and Progress impacted on the policies of the post-war Labour government and Poverty and the Welfare State was used in a Labour party election manifesto headed Ending Poverty although this was without his knowledge.

Seebohm and the Rowntree's firm broke new ground in terms of industrial relations, welfare and management. Urwick and Brech credit Rowntree's work during this time with doing much to inform popular opinion on the necessity for industrial welfare and the role that personnel management could play in this regard. Rejoining the family business in , Rowntree succeeded his father as chairman in The experience of the Ministry of Munitions had stimulated his interest in efficient management and exposed him to new influences, including British management thinkers such as Edward Elbourne and American scientific management.

During this visit he met the Australian sociologist Clarence Northcott, whom he invited to join the management team at Rowntree. Inspired in part by what he had seen in America, Rowntree returned to Britain and began a series of major initiatives in disseminating management ideas: the Rowntree conferences, begun in , and the Management Research Groups, launched a few years later.

He remained personally committed to and very closely involved with both these initiatives throughout his career. Rowntree was also closely involved with the National Institute of Industrial Psychology, serving on its executive committee from , and as chairman from Through the s, Rowntree relied on being able to fund his industrial welfare activities through achieving greater production efficiency.

B ut b y the end of the decade, Cadbury was extending its lead over Rowntree, and not even a revamp of the sales department in could halt this trend. The onset of the Great Depression in hit both companies hard, and Rowntree approached Cadbury with an offer of a merger. When Cadbury refused, Rowntree restructured his own firm and used the resulting savings to invest heavily in marketing and promotion.

By Rowntree's profits were rising once more. Following the Second World War Rowntree set in motion the first moves towards a major overseas expansion, and then retired as chairman shortly before his death. Rowntree was made a Companion of Honour in He died in York on 7 October Although he introduced a profit-sharing scheme in , b y his own admission he remained ambivalent about co-partnership, viewing it as a good thing in theory but unable to see clearly how to make it work in practice.

Yet his relationships with labour were very good, and Fred Hawksby, his senior shop steward, was a regular attendee of the conferences and, in the discussion sessions, not backwards about coming forward. His philosophy throughout this book is one of communication and consultation with workers, rather than outright partnership. He argued for treating workers not as partners in the technical, legal sense, but as fellow voyagers on a journey towards the same destination.

Industrial welfare is not a fad or a hobby for managers of a philanthropic bent, he says.