Social Science Information and Public Policy Making by Robert F. Rich

Author:Robert F. Rich [Rich, Robert F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780765807588
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 8712863
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1981-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Conduct of Research

After the planning stage was completed, CNS was prepared to go into the field and begin to collect information. In the spring of 1973, the first cycle was fielded, and subsequent cycles were completed monthly. NORC’s grant funds were depleted by December 1973, after six cycles; the original grant, however, was expected to fund thirteen cycles. The most significant events during this phase of the project were NORC’s attempts to continue to diversify within the participating agencies, NORC’s realization that the funds allocated for one year of fieldwork would be depleted after six or seven cycles, and the agencies’ initial evaluations of NORC’s work.

Agency Participation: NORC’s Continued Diversification. During this stage of development, NORC diversified its contacts to include thirteen new staff participants and nine upper-level policy makers, including participants from one new department (Federal Energy Office) and a government research institute, FDA, which was not involved during the planning stage. These new participants were applying their energies to fourteen new policy areas. (See Appendix B for a summary of these developments.)

NORC also tried, unsuccessfully, to diversify into the secretary’s offices in two other departments. Obviously, the initial constraint of being dependent upon research offices for establishing contact with a department was not hindering the CNS’s ability to diversify within the agencies. Indeed, policy makers’ contact with the project was more intensive during this stage of development. In two of the agencies, the secretary and assistant secretary received reports summarizing the results of the project. In one case, the assistant secretary and secretary received a briefing concerning the project from the staff coordinator. The upper-level policy makers did not take sufficient interest in the project, at this stage, to become involved in questionnaire formulation or other operational concerns. The policy makers’ input was limited. Although secretaries are not usually involved in administrative matters concerning the day-to-day operations of projects, if they were sufficiently interested, it would not be unusual for them to give direction to questionnaire formulation. Assistant secretaries usually offer more direct substantive input and, although their offices would not want to be involved in day-to-day operations, decisions concerning questionnaire formulation and kinds of reports could be dealt with frequently if sufficient interest were shown.

At the staff level, the brokers continued to play a major role. They were the only ones who regularly met with NORC; others continued to funnel communications through them. In the organizations newly involved with CNS, the broker role was less pronounced, because CNS failed to interest a person within these agencies in adopting the role.

The staff members who were not brokers met with NORC representatives when they were in Washington, occasionally met among themselves concerning the project, and telephoned NORC more frequently than they had during the planning stage. However, their contact was still significantly less intense than the brokers’.

Some of the brokers became uncomfortable with their position during this period. They felt that NORC was relying upon them too heavily and that they “could not devote their careers to this project.

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