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Labor Force: The Center for Human Resources
By Meghan Laska
Founded as the Industrial Research Department, the Center has had long-reaching
effects on labor and workforce issues.
The Center for Human Resources was the first
research center of its kind among business schools, producing
relevant research used by businesses and policymakers in
government at a time when other business-school research
centers were engaged in the writing of case studies.
Its impact has been far-reaching and impossible to extricate
from 20th Century economic history, as well as current
business practices. The outcomes of its research have affected
virtually all labor issues ranging from the nation's definition
of unemployment to the establishment of affirmative action
to changes in employee benefits. Today, the Center for
Human Resources remains the home of cutting-edge research
under the direction of Professor Peter Cappelli, the George
W. Taylor Professor of Management.
Founded in 1921 as the Industrial Research Department
(IRD), its mission was to "study the economic and social
problems of business." Under the direction of Joseph H.
Willits, a Wharton dean who worked with Herbert Hoover
advocating for national employment service, and Anne
Bezanson, the first female member of the standing faculty
of Penn's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the group
gained an international reputation for pioneering research.
Employer associations, government agencies, and international
organizations looked to the IRD for timely and practical
knowledge.
From the time of its founding, the center had many
women on its team, whose research into the economic status
of workers showed disparities in salaries and promotions for
women and minorities. Female research associates working
under Willits and Bezanson included Gladys L. Palmer,
Eleanor L. Dulles, Marion Elderton, and Miriam Hussey.
Future department chair and "father of American arbitration,"
George W. Taylor, also was a notable member of this
early team.
However, this workhorse of a group entered into a period
of dormancy in the late 1950s and early 1960s due to budgetary
problems and the illness or death of its leaders. Had it not
been for an attentive secretary, it might have gone down in
history as an interesting blip on the School's timeline.
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