# Oliver Sheldon
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{{short description|British business director}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2016}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Oliver Sheldon
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date |1894|07|13}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|1951|8|7|1894|7|13}}
| death_place =
| occupation = [CEO](/source/CEO) of [Rowntree Company](/source/Rowntree_Company)
| known_for = Management theorist and CEO of [Rowntree's](/source/Rowntree's)
| notable_works = ''The Philosophy of Management'' (1923)
| spouse =
| parents =
| children =
}}
'''Oliver Sheldon''' (1894–1951) was a British management theorist and [business executive](/source/business_executive) who was director of the confectionary company [Rowntree's](/source/Rowntree's) in [York](/source/York), England. He wrote on principles of public and business administration in the 1920s.
==Early life==
Oliver Sheldon was born on 13 July 1894.[{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900-1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=98}}] He was educated at [King's College School](/source/King's_College_School) and [Merton College, Oxford](/source/Merton_College%2C_Oxford).[Rosamund Thomas, ''The British Philosophy of Administration: A comparison of British and American ideas 1900-1939'', 1978, p.255-7] At Rowntree's, Sheldon was a colleague of [Lyndall Urwick](/source/Lyndall_Urwick) and, like Urwick, was an active member of the [Taylor Society](/source/Taylor_Society).['The Art of Management: from a British Point of View', ''Bulletin of the Taylor Society'' (December 1923)]['Taylor the Creative Leader', ''Bulletin of the Taylor Society'' (February 1924)]
He founded York Georgian Society in 1939 and was one of the four men who founded York Civic Trust in 1946.[{{Cite web|url=http://yorkcivictrust.co.uk/about/history-york-civic-trust/|title = History of York Civic Trust – York Civic Trust}}] The University of York's Borthwick Institute for Archives cites Sheldon as its inspiration and creator in 1949 and 1950; and the Borthwick Institute was one of the founding elements of the University in 1963.[{{cite web |url=https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/history/origins/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927011113/http://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/history/origins/ |archive-date=27 September 2015 |title=Our origins - Borthwick Institute for Archives, The University of York}}] The Civic Trust named [Oliver Sheldon House](/source/Oliver_Sheldon_House) after him.[{{cite book |last1=Webb |first1=Katherine |title=Oliver Sheldon and the Foundations of the University of York |date=2009 |publisher=Borthwick Publications |location=York |isbn=9781904497288 |page=80}}]
==Management philosophy==
Sheldon was closely involved in restructuring the management and organization of the growing confectionery company at a stage where its growth meant by necessity it had to move away from the personal, family-centred management of its founder, [Joseph Rowntree](/source/Joseph_Rowntree_(philanthropist)), towards a more professional culture. Under the chairmanship of Joseph's son, [Seebohm](/source/Benjamin_Seebohm_Rowntree), the company adopted Sheldon's proposals for a more functional style of organisation, but he tempered this with a belief, shared by the Rowntree firm's senior managers, that industry existed for more than the profit of shareholders. Sheldon held that good management was about more than technique - it should be concerned with human understanding. "The leadership of men calls for patience, courage, and, above all, sympathy." Service to the community was the primary motive and fundamental basis of industry.
==Human relations approach==
Consequently, Sheldon advocated a [human relations](/source/Human_Relations_Movement) style of management which placed the individual in a human context involving a range of emotional and psychological needs. In this, he disagreed fundamentally with contemporaries such as [Frederick Taylor](/source/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor), who saw economic need as being the primary motivator of workers.[{{cite book|author=Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr.|title=Benevolent Barons: American Worker-Centered Industrialists, 1850-1910|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CLnwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA197|date=17 June 2015|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-9494-1|pages=197–}}] Anticipating later writers such as [Elton Mayo](/source/Elton_Mayo) and [Frederick Herzberg](/source/Frederick_Herzberg) by some years, Sheldon argued that, while basic economic needs must be met, wider personal and community needs were equally important.
Industry was key to shaping society and the leaders and managers of industry consequently had to work to ethical considerations which were greater than purely financial. While stressing the need for efficiency, he saw service and democracy as complementary to this - reflecting long established Rowntree practices, introduced by Joseph and extended by Seebohm Rowntree and Oliver Sheldon, such as ensuring their workers were paid a "[living wage](/source/living_wage)", had decent working conditions and were consulted on and involved in decision making in the workplace. Both the firm and individual directors were closely involved in a range of community work, often motivated by their [Quaker](/source/Religious_Society_of_Friends) religious beliefs and/or their [Liberal](/source/Liberal_Party_(UK)) politics.
==Influence on Rowntree's==
In 1904, [Joseph Rowntree](/source/Joseph_Rowntree_(philanthropist)) had given away half his personal fortune and almost two-thirds of the shares in the company to three [Trusts](/source/Rowntree_trusts) to pursue a range of charitable, social and political work. All three continue today in the forms of the [Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust](/source/Joseph_Rowntree_Charitable_Trust), the [Joseph Rowntree Foundation](/source/Joseph_Rowntree_Foundation) (which includes the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust) and the [Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust](/source/Joseph_Rowntree_Reform_Trust). All are still based in [York](/source/York).[Katherine A. Webb, ''Oliver Sheldon and the Foundations of the University of York'' (York: Borthwick Institute, 2009).]
Although with the passage of time, the Rowntree company was to change and develop in new ways (particularly with new brands and marketing from the 1930s on), and in 1988 was controversially [{{Cite journal|date=March 1993|title=UK: Nestle Rowntree - A bittersweet tale.|url=https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/uk-nestle-rowntree-bittersweet-tale/article/409657|journal=Management Today}}] bought by [Nestlé](/source/Nestl%C3%A9), it retained a tradition of good management throughout, in keeping with the philosophy of its founder and those around him.