Robert Louis Kahn (March 28, 1918 – January 6, 2019) was an American psychologist and social scientist, specializing in organizational theory and survey research, having been considered a "founding father" of the modern approach to these disciplines.
[1] He has also been involved in developing studies on aging and his work is critically acclaimed by experts.
[3][4] He earned his PhD at the University of Michigan and was one of the founding members of the Institute for Social Research.
[7] Kahn's work on organizational theory, including the book "The Social Psychology of Organizations" (1966) that he co-authored with Daniel Katz, has been described as "a major influence on the field of organizational research, applying a framework of open system theory—the assumption that an organization continuously interacts with its environment—to research on leadership, role behavior, and organizational effectiveness".
The book and other pertaining research on the topic by Kahn and collaborators have contributed to the understanding of mechanisms of successful aging.