Abstract
The Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy mourns the passing of our colleague, J. Richard Hackman, PhD, a leading expert on teams and performance-oriented groups in organizations. Dr. Hackman succumbed January 8, 2013 in Boston, from complications of lung cancer.
John Richard Hackman was born in Joliet, Illinois, on June 14, 1940. He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and minors in psychology and physics from MacMurray College and his Master's and PhD degrees from the University of Illinois. The Illinois program was emerging, at that time, as the leading research center for the study of groups as social, task-performance systems, with faculty and students joining together to examine the determinants of group productivity, decision making, creativity, and systems-level processes in groups and organizations. Joseph McGrath chaired Richard's dissertation project ("Effects of Task Characteristics on Group Products"), completed in 1966. Dr. Hackman, upon graduation, took a position on the faculty of administrative sciences and psychology at Yale University, where he remained for 20 years. In 1986 he moved to the Psychology Department and the Business School at Harvard University.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2013
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2013 Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy. This article first appeared in The Group Psychologist 23:1 (2013), 15-16.
Recommended Citation
Forsyth, Donelson R. "J. Richard Hackman, PhD (1940-2013)." The Group Psychologist 23 (April 2013): 15-16.