MEMORIAL RESOLUTION SenD#4494
===================
Eugene J. Webb
(1933-1995)
Eugene John Webb, Lane Professor of Organizational Behavior in the
Graduate School of Business and Professor of Communication (by courtesy)
in the School of Humanities and Sciences, died at the Stanford Hospital
on March 14, 1995 from a respiratory disease.
Professor Webb was born on July 18,1933 in Albany, NY, where he grew up.
He received his bachelor's degree from the State University of New York
at Albany in 1954 and he entered the Ph.D. program at the University of
Chicago where he graduated with a Ph.D. in Psychology two years later.
His career began as a research psychologist working for Edward H. Weiss
& Company from 1956 to 1957, and the Chicago Tribune from 1957 to 1960.
In 1960 he was appointed as an Assistant Professor and Director of
Research in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
He subsequently was given a joint appointment in Marketing at the School
of Business and became a full professor. From 1967 to 1968 he was on
leave as Senior Technical Staff member of the Institute for Defense
Analysis. Webb's association with the Stanford community began as a
visitor in 1966, and continued as a professor in the Graduate School of
Business from 1968 until he retired in February 1995. He was a leader
in many of the Business School's most innovative programs. As a scholar
and teacher, he played a pioneering role in bringing behavioral
psychology into the mainstream curriculum of American business schools.
He began teaching advertising research at Northwestern and quickly
established friendly relationships with those people in psychology and
sociology who were studying attitude measurement and other facets of
social behavior. These informal get-togethers with psychology
colleagues, Sechrest and Campbell and sociologist Schwartz, led to a
volume that was published in 1966 with Webb as the senior author,
entitled Unobtrusive Measures. This enormously innovative book offered
ways to describe and measure human behavior without intruding upon it.
The book became a best selling methodological classic, translated into
Japanese, Spanish and German. Gordon W. Allport, Harvard¹s
distinguished personality and social psychologist, wanted to give it a
Pulitzer Prize because of its creativeness and humor. Donald Campbell,
one of the co-authors, said recently ³What is still unique in the
methods text is that the printed version retains the playfulness from
which the book originated. This was Gene¹s doing.² At one point they
considered calling the book "The Bullfighter's Beard", since some
observers believed bullfighters' beards grew faster on the days they
fought. Webb cautioned: "No one seems to know if the torero's beard
really grows faster on that day because of anxiety or if he simply
stands further away from the blade, shaking razor in hand."
His research interests were as diverse as his personal interests.
Initially his focus was on methodology which resulted in Unobtrusive
Measures. During his Northwestern days he also published a book with
Salancik, The Interview, in which they analyzed the reliability of
interviewing as source of information for reporters. Later he reached
out in many other directions. With Leavitt and Pinfield, he published
Organizations of the Future, and in 1981 he co-authored a book with
Campbell, Schwartz, Sechrest and Grove, Nonreactive Measures in Social
Science. His writings in journals include pieces ranging from tactics
for political campaigners, to the implementation of organizational
change. More recently he published a set of intriguing papers dealing
with volunteerism and motivations underlying philanthropic behavior.
Webb's "unobtrusive" contributions to others people¹s research were at
least as significant as his own published works. He was a helper. It
would be hard to find a colleague whose research has not been given aid
and succor by Gene¹s often unsolicited notes, references, and ideas. He
searched across disciplinary boundaries, turning up relevant ideas that
the researchers themselves would never have uncovered. Gene had the
rare and wonderful capacity to tear bad work apart positively, in ways
that could still leave its author smiling. Even in the last months of
his life, he wrote lucid, perceptive, and, as always, helpful criticisms
of drafts of colleagues¹ papers.
His research on organizations was complemented by years of extraordinary
service to his own organization‹Stanford University. He worked
tirelessly on behalf of Stanford, serving on the major governing bodies
of the faculty and numerous university committees and accepting major
administrative assignments. ³Gene was an institution builder,² recalled
former Business School Dean Robert Jaedicke. He worked hard and
embodied the spirit of service and collegiality‹a true university
leader.
His organizational abilities were called upon by the University soon
after he came to Stanford, at the time of the campus turmoil of the
Vietnam Era. From 1969 to 1970, he served on the committee appointed by
President Pitzer to resolve the controversy over the academic presence
of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). In later years he served
on the Panel on Human Subjects and Medical Research, the Stanford
Committee on Investment Responsibility, the University Committee on
Health and Safety, the Committee on Graduate Affairs, and as a faculty
sponsor for Stanford¹s program in Washington. What was especially
important about Gene was his ability to infuse conversations and
committee meetings (not always the most exciting events of any day) with
humor and creative thoughts and still accomplish the work at hand.
³When I think of Gene Webb, I think of him in the corridors,² recalled a
former colleague. ³He was the person who linked people. He was the
mortar that held the social groupings together.²
One measure of the esteem in which Gene was held by his peers is
indicated by his repeated election to the University Advisory Board, the
seven member faculty group which reviews professorial appointments and
counsels the President and Provost on academic policy and faculty
grievances and discipline. It is the only group of faculty involved in
University governance that is selected by the entire Academic Council.
From 1978 to 1985 he served consecutive three-year terms, culminating in
his election as chairman in 1984-85.
One of his most important contributions to the University came during
his years on the Senate of the Academic Council from 1974 to 1977, 1981
to 1985, and again from 1989 to 1991. In 1975-76 he was elected its
chairman. ³A marvelous choice² said outgoing chairman Gordon Craig. ³He
has excellent judgment and considerable skill in persuasion.² It was a
demanding job. Stanford had emerged from the campus disruptions of the
late sixties and early seventies but was suddenly and painfully
confronted, as were many leading universities, with budget shortfalls as
the boom years of higher education gave way to years of retrenchment.
Gene counseled his colleagues, ³A test of us shall be the degree to
which we approach these proposals, whatever they may be, with dispassion
and with avoidance of provincial interest.² His talent for leadership
was evident from the first meeting that he presided over. Under his
guidance, the Senate worked closely with the Administration to manage
the deficit and reorder the budget without injury to the mission of the
University. At the end of a year of difficult and dedicated work, he
could report to the faculty: ³Despite the internal strife . . . we are
not demoralized. We continue to generate significant research; we
continue to teach; we continue to try to improve that teaching; we have
not been tripped by financial brooding; and we have survived and shall
survive as an eminent institution.²
Not all of his time as chairman of the Senate was spent on budgetary
issues. During his tenure the Senate authorized undergraduate majors in
East Asian and American Studies; established the rank of Associate
Clinical Professor within the adjunct professorate; asked for
reconsideration of a proposal for need-based graduate aid; extended the
operation of the Stanford Center for Innovation and Research in
Education (SCIRE) and the Stanford Workshops on Political and Social
Issues (SWOPSI); and approved a policy of participating in a joint
library program with Berkeley to coordinate research collections and
reciprocate borrowing privileges. After his period as Senate chair,
Gene joined with other former chairs in an informal group of elder
statesmen of the University to provide advice on a number of important
controversies facing the University.
In addition to his service at the university level, Gene was a leader in
the Graduate School of Business where he served as an Associate Dean for
Academic Affairs from 1981 to 1986. During this time he provided
stability in the transitions between outgoing Dean Arjay Miller and
incoming Dean Ren McPherson, and between McPherson and Dean Robert
Jeadicke. These transitions made the role of the Associate Dean
especially crucial. He carried out these duties with consummate skill
and grace, introducing a number of innovations that remain hallmarks of
the School today. His service to the School started soon after he
arrived at Stanford. He was the founding Director of the Urban
Management Program which, at that time, was one of the few public sector
management programs to be imbedded in a business school. Through his
stewardship the program expanded its role to become the Public
Management Program. It continues to attract students who are interested
in public sector and not-for-profit organizations. Gene co-led the
school's MBA Review Committee in 1982 which resulted in several
innovative changes to the curriculum and to the establishment of a new
area of teaching and research, Business and the Environment. Earlier,
he served as Area Coordinator for Organizational Behavior, and for
several years, as a member of the Dean's Advisory Group.
Through his teaching and course development, he continued at Stanford
the work begun at Northwestern to change the way people thought about
social science research and the way it was taught in business schools.
His teaching spanned courses in the MBA, Ph.D., and executive education
programs. MBA teaching included courses in marketing, organizational
behavior, power and politics, public sector organizations, political
processes, crisis management, and most recently, his course on
philanthropy that culminated with students "investing" $10,000 in
charitable organizations. Gene's Ph.D. teaching was a continuation of
his research into methodological issues. He forged lasting ties to his
doctoral students, several of whom have become leaders in bringing
organizational research to bear on management issues. He taught in
several of the School's executive education programs, including several
stints in the flagship Stanford Executive Program. He also founded and
directed two executive programs: The Board of Directors Program and the
Getting Things Done Program which later became the Executive Program in
Organizational Management. In his teaching as in other aspects of his
career, Gene is remembered for his broad knowledge, challenging
questions and genuine interest in students. He was always willing to
tackle new subjects and to place the interests of students and the
institution above his own personal preferences.
Gene¹s talents and willingness to serve carried over to the other phases
of his life where he served on many boards and committees. This
included being the Chairman of the Committee on Technology Assessment
and Exploratory Research, and a member of the Advisory Committee on
Research Applied to National Needs Division, for the National Science
Foundation. He was appointed by the California Chief Justice to chair
an advisory committee of the California Judicial Council and was a
member of the Grants Award Committee on Organizational Research of the
National Institute of Education, the Advisory Committee of the Law
Enforcement Assistance Administration, and the Joint US-USSR Venture on
Management Education.
His public service included serving on the Board of Directors of the
American Institutes for Research in Washington D.C. and as the Chairman
of the board of The Experience Corps, an organization he helped found to
utilize the experience of retired professionals. He was also a
consultant to private companies including Bell Telephone Laboratories,
Bechtel Corporation, IBM and the Tom Peters Group, where he was a member
of the board of directors.
Gene Webb was a joyous, playful and intellectually creative member of
the Stanford community. His friends at Stanford will remember the warm
and thoughtful notes that he sent out. These notes were especially
poignant when they were sent during his final months of life in and out
of the hospital. Senator Paul Simon, a longtime friend called him "an
uncommonly civil man with great research skills and practical insight."
John Gardner said: "His outstanding gift was the gift of friendship."
The people he worked with, Presidents, Provosts, Deans and faculty
colleagues relied on his counsel and recognized his tremendous
commitment to building this institution. As one said: "The term
collegial was invented to describe him."
A memorial service was held in Memorial Church on March 21, 1995.
Tributes were delivered by Albert H. Hastorf, John W. Gardner, Raymond
Bacchetti, Charles A. Holloway and L. Geoffrey Webb. Dean Robert C.
Gregg presided. Professor Webb is survived by his wife Mimi; his
mother, Alice Webb Connors; and three children, Leigh Geoffrey Webb,
Alison Webb Desmarais and Gregory Paul Webb to whom we extend our
sympathies.
Albert H. Hastorf
Harold J. Leavitt
J. Keith Mann
Charles A. Holloway, Chair