Hugo Munsterberg's Pioneer Studies of Managerial Decisions-Making.

Journal of Management History

“…Examining Munsterberg's records at Boston Public Library revealed that Harold Burtt was sent to New York to conduct new tests and J.W. Bridges assigned the task of studying the decision at Harvard (Wrege et al, 1982;Munsterberg, 1914). Bridges' work was described in a 1915 thesis now at Harvard, but the full impact of Munsterberg's decision studies is still to be explored.…”

Psychology's entrepreneurs and the marketing of industrial psychology.

“…Ostracized in academia, Miinsterberg was open to examine things that contemporary intellectuals considered base such as the ' 'photoplay,'' or movie (Miinsterberg, 1915b). He also played upon the sensational, reviving his research on ship captains' decision-making in the wake of the Titanic's sinking (Wrege et al, 1982).…”

“…The company wanted to prevent future accidents by selecting only officers who were able to make crisis decisions. Münsterberg accepted the job and devised a timed sorting task to measure decision-making ability (Münsterberg, 1913; Wrege, Greenwood, Mundy, & Muhs, 1982).…”

“…Ostracized in academia, Münsterberg was open to examine things that contemporary intellectuals considered base such as the “photoplay,” or movie (Münsterberg, 1915b). He also played upon the sensational, reviving his research on ship captains’ decision-making in the wake of the Titanic’s sinking (Wrege et al, 1982). In essence, Münsterberg was one of psychology’s first entrepreneurs because his research products were increasingly pitched toward the public marketplace instead of the academic.…”