Robert K. Merton was a sociologist who founded the field of the sociology of science, the study of how acts of research influence and are influenced by the contexts being investigated. Two of his early essays exemplify this body of work whereby he and his research teams reflect on the challenges and difficulties of performing field work. In this episode, we examine two speeches delivered in 1947 that exemplify the effort to better understand how to study social change in organizations undergoing technological transformations.
The first, “The Machine, the Worker, and the Engineer,” follows a similar theme as Trist & Bamforth’s coal-getting study covered in Episodes 34 & 114. There, a major technological change was incorrectly assumed by management to lead to greater production but instead tore asunder the social fabric of the miners. Merton explores the more general pattern that a technological advance was seen as a “self-evident good” but managers never considered the work conditions (such as motivation, job satisfaction, professional development, and advancement) and social conditions that might be harmed. What Merton proceeds to do in this speech is present common perspectives that have emerged over years of empirical research regarding the purposes of the “machine” or technology, the situation of the worker employing the technology, and the engineering separately building the machines under management direction or their own curiosity, but not necessarily with the worker’s needs or conditions in mind. Although the aim was to provide a contemporary research agenda, Merton’s findings find ready application to questions regarding the advancement of capabilities in workplaces today.
The second speech is “Some problems of field work in the planned community,” which explores how relationships and tensions within the environment under study can lead to consequences for the researcher, the research itself, and the subjects of the study. This was a classic example of Merton’s sociology of science where the originating study itself was not discussed beyond disclosing that it was in a planned housing community and the subjects were from management and residents. Of interest instead were the various reactions and responses to the presence of the research team. For example, the tensions between management and residents complicated the way the research team had to enter the site so as to maintain objectivity and neutrality, and not to be seen as a tool of either management or the residents against the other party. Merton described various characteristics and motivations of “informants” of the study and under what conditions did they tend to be more cooperative. The result was a series of recommendations for academic sociologists aiming to collect data from “the field”, to increase cooperation and avoid alienating the participants.
Merton’s most famous work, on the “Matthew Effect” in science, extends upon these works with the notion of how the value of scientific publications tend to be perceived on the basis of factors other than quality. We may include an episode on this article in future.
You may also download the audio files here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Supplement
Read with us:
Merton, R. K. (1947). The machine, the worker, and the engineer. Science, 105(2717), 79-84.
Merton, R. K. (1947). Selected problems of field work in the planned community. American Sociological Review, 12(3), 304-312.
Related episodes from the Talking About Organizations Network:
Episode 114. Sociotechnical Systems — Trist & Bamforth (revisited) and Episode 34 (original)
Episode 100. Special Episode — The State of Organization Studies
Episode 92. Organization Secrecy — The Manhattan Project
Episode 86. Networks and Network Theory — Mark Granovetter
Episode 33. Foremen – Master and Victim of Doubletalk — Roethlisberger
