Lillian Gilbreth
American industrial psychologist and engineer
American psychologist and management consultant who applied psychology to work and motion study with her husband Frank Gilbreth. She completed a Brown University doctorate in 1915 and later taught at Purdue.
Why this person matters
Lillian Gilbreth is described as an early figure in organisational psychology. She brought attention to the human side of scientific management, including fatigue and individual differences. She worked in partnership with Frank Gilbreth, whose name carried the books, and she led the firm after his death.
Main contributions
The Psychology of Management
Her dissertation, published in 1914 before her degree, addressed the psychological side of industrial management, including human relations and individual differences among workers. It is often cited as an early work combining psychology with management theory.
Motion study with Frank Gilbreth
The couple ran the consulting firm Gilbreth, Inc. and used motion-picture cameras to record work processes, which helped them redesign machinery to fit workers' movements. Their fatigue research is described as a forerunner of ergonomics.
Work after 1924
After Frank died in 1924 she led the firm and consulted for companies including Macy's and General Electric. She also applied scientific management to housework and published The Homemaker and Her Job in 1927.
Context and limits
Psychology's Feminist Voices reports that she wrote several books with Frank without being named as co-author, because publishers worried that a woman's name would hurt credibility. The Gilbreths' stance has been described as a constructive critique of Taylor's scientific management for neglecting the human element, within a framework that still aimed at efficiency. Sources differ on her degree path, and studies of worker outcomes under her methods were not found.
In your introductory course
Applied psychology, work and education.Appears in applied and industrial-organisational psychology as an early example of the human-factors view of work. Students meet her in discussions of scientific management and of women in early applied psychology.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 13.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1914
Published The Psychology of Management.
- 1915
Received her doctorate from Brown University.
- 1924
Became sole head of the Gilbreth consulting firm after Frank Gilbreth's death.
- 1935
Became a professor of management at Purdue University.
Sources
- Psychology's Feminist Voices, Lillian GilbrethSociety or association. Institutional biography inspected.
- Engineering and Technology History Wiki, Lillian Moller GilbrethSociety or association. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Lillian Moller GilbrethReference work. Reference article inspected.