After serving as a senior faculty member and program director at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology and the Yale School of Organization & Management, Clayton P. Alderfer has formed a consulting firm, Alderfer & Associates, to provide organizational diagnosis and consultation services for clients in the private, not-for profit, and public sectors.
Clay is a widely recognized for his formulation of two influential theories that have influenced education and practice in the field of management. From 1966-89, his research addressed human needs in organizations and resulted in the formation and empirical testing of Existence, Relatedness, and Growth (E.R.G.) theory, a body of work now frequently cited in management textbooks. Beginning in 1971, empirical research and consultation with organizations in the private, public, and not-for profit sectors, led to formulation of embedded inter-group relations theory. This theory and its associated diagnostic methods form the basis of Clay’s consulting practice concerning organizations, leadership, race relations, family business, and corporate governance.
Clay Alderfer grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and completed a B.S. degree with high honors from Yale University in 1962 and a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1966. Since 1975, he has held a diploma in organizational consulting psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology.
After a brief term at Cornell University (1966-68), Clay held senior faculty appointments at Yale University (1968-1992) and Rutgers University (1992-2006). At Cornell, his position was in the Graduate School of Business and Public Administration (now the Johnson School). At Yale, he was a faculty member in the Department of Administrative Sciences and, after 1974, in the School of Organization & Management. There he played a key role in founding the school and developing the Master of Public and Private Management program, while serving as Director of Professional Studies and Associate Dean. In the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology, while serving Director of the Doctoral Program in Organizational Psychology for 12 years, he played a major part in advancing that program. He served on that faculty for 14 years, and, in 2006, received the Teacher of the Year Award. From 1990-2003, he served as editor of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. He has also served on the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly and the Family Business Review.
Currently, he is a writer and a consultant in private practice.
Here’s a complete CV for Clay.
