Benjamin M. Selekman papers

Benjamin Morris Selekman was born March 26, 1893 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh, earning a B.S. in 1915. He continued his education and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1917 and 1927, respectively. During this time, he married Sylvia Kopald in 1924, who he would collaborate with on some of his work and who was his co-author on Problems in Labor Relations. In 1929, he would serve as the executive director of the Associated Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, a position he would hold until 1945.

Selekman first started working as a faculty member of Harvard Business School in 1935 as a lecturer on Urban Industrial Problems and then as an associate professor of Business Administration in 1942. In 1945, Selekman became the first Kirstein Professor of Labor Relations, a position he held until his death in 1962. His numerous writings include Labor Relations and Human Relations, 1947; The New Industrial Relations, 1948; Power and Morality in a Business Society, 1956; Problems in Labor Relations, 1957; and A Moral Philosophy for Management, 1959.

Selekman also served as an impartial arbitrator for labor disputes with various companies, corporations, associations, and unions, particularly with the men’s clothing industry in New England and the steel industry in New England, including disputes from the Bethlehem Steel Company, the United Steelworkers of America, the Republic Steel Corporation, Textile Workers Union of America, and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.