| Robert Louis Kahn | |
| Birth Date: | 28 March 1918 |
| Birth Place: | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Burlington, Vermont, U.S. |
| Nationality: | American |
| Fields: | Psychology, Sociology |
| Workplaces: | University of Michigan |
| Known For: | Systems theory, Organizational theory |
Robert Louis Kahn (March 28, 1918 – January 6, 2019) was an American psychologist and social scientist, specializing in organizational theory and survey research, having been considered a "founding father" of the modern approach to these disciplines.[1] He has also been involved in developing studies on aging and his work is critically acclaimed by experts.[2]
Kahn was born in Detroit, Michigan on March 28, 1918.[3] [4] He earned his PhD at the University of Michigan and was one of the founding members of the Institute for Social Research.[5] He taught at the University of Michigan from 1948 to 1976, and directed the "Survey Research Center".
In 1963 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[6] He was president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in 1970.
Kahn died in Burlington, Vermont on January 6, 2019.[7]
Kahn's work on organizational theory, including the book "The Social Psychology of Organizations" (1966) that he co-authored with Daniel Katz, has been described as "a major influence on the field of organizational research, applying a framework of open system theory—the assumption that an organization continuously interacts with its environment—to research on leadership, role behavior, and organizational effectiveness".[2] Kahn has also been appraised as a leading scholar in the study of aging,[2] especially after the publication of "Successful Aging" (1998) that he co-authored with John Wallis Rowe. The book and other pertaining research on the topic by Kahn and collaborators have contributed to the understanding of mechanisms of successful aging.[8]