GOMBERG, PROFESSOR WILLIAM 1911-1985

Reports and correspondence relating to Gomberg's employment as consultant by the United States Mutual Security Agency, to advise European trade unions and others on means of improving post war productivity in Europe.

Professor William Gomberg 1911-1985

Gomberg was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York City. After graduating from the City College of New York with a Bachelor of Science in 1933, he entered the field of labour relations. Gomberg began his career working for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (IGLWU) as a collective bargaining agent representing the union in contract negotiations. In 1941, Gomberg became the head of the management engineering department of the IGLWU, a post he held until 1956. During this period he studied industrial engineering at New York University and receive his Master's degree in 1941. Six years later he got his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Gomberg decided to enter into the academic world in 1956. He became a professor of industrial engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and held visiting professor posts at the University of California, Columbia's Graduate School of Business Administration, and Stanford University. In 1959 he joined the faculty of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he stayed for the remainder of his career as a Professor of Management and Industrial Relations.

During his time at the Wharton School, Gomberg wrote extensively on the subjects of labour and management. Gomberg worked with Arthur B. Shostak in writing Blue Collar World (1964) and New Perspectives on Poverty (1965). His research varied from a study of the entrepreneurial potential of the Paiute Indians at Pyramid Lake to the effects of technology upon work. Much of his writings during the 1960s and 1970s concentrated upon the psychology of management. For much of this period he worked on collecting material for a history of management theory in the United States. William Gomberg died on 8 December 1985.

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Kolko, G.

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