Fonds F0308 - Otto Friedman fonds

Otto Friedman (1905-1978), born and educated in Prague, emigrated to England in the 1930s where he served the Czechoslovak government-in-exile during the German occupation of his native country. He taught in English universities (London, Oxford, Reading) following graduation from the London School of Economics in 1947 and he worked as a management consultant in London prior to moving to Canada in 1968. In Canada he taught at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto, 1968-1971. In the latter year he joined the faculty of York University as a visiting professor in the Division of Social Science and the Faculty of Environmental Studies where he remained until his death in 1978. Friedman was the author of several books, articles, and lectures in the fields of sociology, organizational theory and practise, and psychology, and produced Czech translations of several works of Freud. His own titles included 'The dangers of fascism,' (1931), 'The break-up of Czech democracy,' (1950, 1971), as well as lectures on 'Productivity in retailing and staff management,' (1956), 'Management ideologies and organizational change,' (1967) and others. In addition he was an avid chess player and contributed newspaper articles, and television and radio programmes on the game while living in Toronto.