"At this point water-tight compartments of university specialization and theories founded on the selected isolation of facts easily break down. Specialized thinking is rarely a sufficient foundation for concrete decisions involving action. The social scientist cannot often form sound administrative judgments solely on the basis of elements which he has picked out simply because they relate directly to his particular specialty. The present emphasis on artificial subdivisions of knowledge and on specialized thinking and teaching in universities, technical schools, and colleges and the relative neglect of administrative problems involving action have a dangerously narrowing effect on graduates of these institutions. While we may and frequently do arouse the intellectual interest of students in a considerable variety of subjects intimately related to the civilization of which they are a part, we pay almost no attention to the web of cross ties among these subjects."
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Academics from the United StatesEconomists from the United StatesBusiness theorists from the United States
Original Language: English
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p. 65-70, as cited in: Albert Lepawsky (1949), Administration, p. 663
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wallace_Brett_Donham
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Wallace Brett Donham
1919 – 1942
Wallace Brett Donham (1877 – November 29, 1954) was an American organizational theorist, Professor of Business Administration and the second dean of the from 1919-1942. The use of case studies in HBS education was greatly expanded during Donham's time as dean.
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"p. 176; cited in: Albert Lepawsky (1949), Administration, p. 194-5"