Rice, Albert Kenneth: Forgotten Giant, Shaper of a Field

This chapter acknowledges and demonstrates A.K. Rice as a shaper of the organization that became the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR, London, UK) and as an essential co-creator of the fields of study and practice that underpin TIHR’s influence. Using information only recently available via archives, we trace his legacy embedded in ideas captured in articles, books, and other source documents. From Rice’s work, change-related practices, traditions, and, above all, institutions still operating effectively on principles and assumptions he developed during two decades of active scholarship. Thus, this chapter reclaims him as a forgotten giant. Based on his understanding of action research as prototyping and customizing methodologies, A.K. Rice combined group dynamics, organizational design, and consultancy practice into a unique blend of both a theory of change and a systems theory of organizations. We summarize his extraordinary work into four streams based on seminal action research projects: postwar reconstruction and innovations in industrial work organizations (Bion); productivity and social organization (Glacier); enterprise and its environment (Ahmedabad); and group relations integrating systems psychodynamics and socio-technical systems (Leicester). Throughout, we draw attention to an underlying paradigm that we label socio-technical systems psychodynamics (STSP) that can be credited to A.K. Rice and his colleagues.