A Biography of Rolf P. Lynton

Abstract

Imagine a professional who records all work-related interactions regularly, religiously, and meticulously for half a century and uses those notes for learning, action, and developing new models. This is Rolf Lynton, a recorder of all such interactions. I have not known nor do I know of any social scientist so meticulous in keeping records; during one 5-year period, Rolf produced 4,300 typed pages of records of interactions and events! And he has used this record-keeping very well in the study of the dynamics of institution building (Lynton, 1970) and in taking a big insightful sweep of his professional journey of studying and building individuals, groups, institutions, and large social systems (Lynton, 1998). In fact, the discipline and art of recording is itself an important contribution to social science methodology (so well discussed in Lynton, 1998, chap. 3, pp. 85-111), which many have followed and benefited from.Most of Rolf's contributions have come from his hands-on experiences; he is a reflective practitioner in the true sense. His deep involvement in action, and his daily recording of experience, especially interpersonal interaction, led to the development of theories, later buttressed with readings, for adequate explanation of the experiences. His early work on strikes in the London docks led him to realize that "the situation in the docks needs to be studied rather than the strikes" (Lynton & King, 1949). The studies of the London docks and the coal mines in Scotland (Scott & Lynton, 1951) were early contributions to conceptualizing sociotechnical systems and autonomous work groups and the role of incentives (Lynton, 1949).With his interest in larger systems, Rolf not only saw the strong interface of industry with community (Scott & Lynton, 1952) but felt the need to work with communities and with change agents working in the communities. He founded an institution, Aloka,