ROSOW, Jerome M(orris) 1919-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born December 2, 1919, in Chicago, IL; died October 11, 2002, in Bronx, NY. Business manager, government adviser, and author. Rosow was an expert in employee productivity and personnel management, and is most remembered as the founder of the Work in America Institute. He was a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1942 before working for the federal government for ten years in personnel and policy. He took his knowledge of personnel issues with him when he was hired by several oil companies, including Creole Petroleum, Exxon, and Esso, during the 1950s and 1960s. After working for two years as assistant secretary of labor for the U.S. Department of Labor, he returned to Exxon as a manager in public affairs and planning. In 1975 he founded the Work in America Institute in Scarsdale, New York. The institute, for which Rosow was also chairman, was a think tank for businesses to develop better ways to increase employee productivity.

One of the major conclusions arrived at was that employees who have a say in company policies that affect them are more productive. Rosow, who had also served as an advisor to three U.S. presidents, wrote several authoritative books about employees, management, and productivity in the United States, including New Work Schedules for a Changing Society (1981), Employment Security in a Free Economy (1984), and Made in America (1984); he also edited such works as The Worker and the Job (1974), Productivity Prospects for Growth (1981), and The Global Marketplace (1988).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Who's Who in America, 56th edition, Marquis (New Providence, NJ), 2001.

periodicals

New York Times, October 21, 2002, p. A21.

Washington Post, October 22, 2002, p. B6.