Dr. Marvin D. Dunnette is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, Chairman Emeritus of Personnel Decisions Research Institutes, Inc. and Personnel Decisions, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Dr. Dunnette graduated from the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota with High Distinction in Chemical Engineering in 1948. He worked for a year in the Department of Mines and Metallurgy as a research chemist. In 1949, he began counseling Institute of Technology students and entered Graduate School to pursue studies in Industrial Psychology. He developed and validated the Minnesota Engineering Analogies Test as his doctoral dissertation requirement.
Shortly after obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 1954, he joined 3M Company as Manager of Employee Relations Research. During his years at 3M, Dr. Dunnette developed new procedures for selecting and appraising research scientists, sales personnel, and clerical employees. He left 3M Company in 1960 to become Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota.
He founded Personnel Decisions, Inc., a management consulting firm, in 1967 and served as its president until 1975 when he became Chairman of its Board of Directors. In that same year, he and two colleagues (Walter Borman and Leaetta Hough) founded Personnel Decisions Research Institute (PDRI). The Research Institute does behavioral science research in areas related to improved and more productive utilization of human resources.
Over the years, Dr. Dunnette either singly or through his research organizations has developed improved selection procedures for occupations as diverse as police officers, lawyers, managers, firefighters, Navy recruiters, salesmen, prison guards, and power plant operators. Other research activities have involved motivation, morale, and job satisfaction of Army personnel, production workers, and salesmen; antecedents and consequences of adolescent drug use; interpersonal perception or empathy; and, improved methods of job analysis and job performance appraisal.
Dr. Dunnette has influenced Industrial and Organizational Psychology through both his teaching and his publications. He has served as academic advisor to sixty-one students who have received their Ph.D. degrees in fields of Industrial Psychology, Counseling Psychology, and Psychometrics. He has published scores of articles, technical reports, chapters, and books. Perhaps his best known book is the Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology published in 1976. Other books include Personnel Selection and Placement; Managerial Behavior, Performance, and Effectiveness; Managerial Motivation and Compensation; Work and Non-Work in the Year 200l; and Psychology Applied to Industry. The Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, co-edited by Dr. Dunnette, Leaetta Hough, and Harry Triandis and consisting of four volumes, was published in the years 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993.
He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and holds the Diplomat in Industrial Psychology granted by the American Board of Professional Psychology. He served as president of the American Psychological Association's Division of Industrial and Organizational Psychology during 1966-67, and was the 1985 recipient of the Division's Award for Outstanding Scientific Contributions.
