Richard Ferdinand Ericson (1919–1993) was an American organizational theorist, professor emeritus of management and director of the Interdisciplinary Systems and Cybernetics Project, Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Richard Ericson received a bachelor's with Phi Beta Kappa and a master's degree at University of Chicago and received his doctorate in economics at Indiana University Bloomington in 1952.
He was a full professor at Stetson University and head of the Department of Management in the School of Business from 1952 to 1956.
From 1956 he was appointed associate professor of management in hospital administration at the State University of Iowa.
In 1969 he became director of the Interdisciplinary Systems and Cybernetics Project, Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.[1] Ericson was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Gamma Sigma, the American Economic Association, the American Management Association, the Society for General Systems Research, the American Cybernetics Association, the Academy of Management, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the World Future Society.
"[4] In his 1972 paper "Visions of Cybernetic Organizations" Ericson stipulated, that in his days a great number of people associated the word "cybernetics" with "computerized information networks, closed loop systems, and robotized man-surrogates, such as artorgas and cyborgs.