Richard A. Feiss

Richard Albert Feiss (July 2, 1878 – June 4, 1954)^[1] was an American lawyer, business manager, and president of Joseph & Feiss Co. in Cleveland, Ohio.^[2] He is known as 6th president of the Taylor Society from 1922 to 1924.^[3][4]

Biography[]

Youth, education and early career[]

Feiss was born and raised in Cleveland, son of Julius Feiss (1848-1931). He studied law at Harvard University, where he obtained his A.B. in 1901 and his L.L.B. in 1903.^[5]

After his graduation Feiss had practiced law in New York for a year. In 1904 he returned to Cleveland to join the garment manufacturing company of his father, producer of men and boy's clothing. The company had just opened a new factory, which was "actively working to eliminate the evils of the "outside" shop system."^[6]

Further career[]

In 1907 the company adopted the new name and trademark, Joseph & Feiss. Feiss adopted the new scientific management principles, and "set out to manage the company’s work force in a manner that would maximize productivity but at the same time create a humane work environment that would keep workers healthy and happy."^[7]

Feiss joined "together Taylor’s principles of scientific management with Progressive era welfare capitalism, establishing a work environment at Joseph & Feiss that many at the time viewed as the most progressive in America."^[7]

From 1922 to 1924 Feiss served as president of the Taylor Society as successor of Henry P. Kendall, and succeeded by Percy S. Brown in 1924.

Selected publications[]

Articles, a selection

• Feiss, Richard A. "Scientific Management Applied To the Steadying of Employment, and Its Effect in an Industrial Establishment." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 61.1 (1915): 103-111.
• Feiss, Richard A. "Personal relationship as a basis of scientific management." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 65.1 (1916): 27-56.
• Feiss, Richard A. "Scientific management and its relation to the health of the worker." American Journal of Public Health 7.3 (1917): 262-267.
• Feiss, Richard A. "Stimulating Labor Efficiency in War Times." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 78.1 (1918): 106-111.
• Feiss, Richard A. "Scientific Management during Times of Depression." Bulletin of Taylor Society 7 (1922): 126-128.

Patents, a selection

• "Carment and method of sewing sleeve linings into armholes thereof." U.S. Patent No 1,575,562, 1926.
• 'Garment and method of making it." U.S. Patent No 1,578,969, 1926.
• "Vent for full-lined garments and method of making it." U.S. Patent No 1,626,799, 1927.

Works about Feiss

• Wrege, Charles D., and Bernice M. Lattanzio. "The Human Side of Enterprise"--Forty-Five Years Before McGregor, the Work of Richard A. Feiss, Early Explorer in Human Relations." Academy of Management Proceedings. Vol. 1977. No. 1. Academy of Management, 1977.
• Goldberg, David J. "Richard A. Feiss, Mary Barnett Gilson, and Scientific Management at Joseph & Feiss, 1909-1925." A Mental Revolution: Scientific Management since Taylor, Columbus: Ohio State University (1992): 40-57.
• Wrege, Charles D., Regina A. Greenwood, and Sakae Hata. "What we do not know about management history: Some categories of research and methods to uncover management history mysteries." Journal of Management History 5.7 (1999): 414-424.

References[]

External links[]

• The Joseph and Feiss Company at Cleveland Historical