Sociaal onderzoek en opdrachtgever

Samenvatting

An attempt to investigate the relations between employer and employee in the field of social research. These relations have been ignored, so far, in Dutch sociological research. The need to analyze them has become all the more urgent, as the amount of social research increases in an affluent society, with corresponding increases of employer-employee friction. A distinction is made between general relations, ie between res'ers and employers, and the specific relations between sociol'al res'ers and their employers. The general relations are affected by the same kind of latent class conflict as between all employers and workers; they are aggravated by the role-relationship between intellectual and bureaucrat, as formulated by T. Geiger and R. K. Merton. This aspect of the conflict has been emphasized in the Netherlands by the formation of the Associal of Social Science Res'ers. The specific relations between sociological reseachers and their employers are aggravated by the low evaluation of social research by employers. The reasons are: sociology deals with HR in which everybody considers himself an expert; social researchers do not possess respect inspiring concepts and techniques; and the quality of research is generally low. The need for analyzing these relations is illustrated by 3 cases: (1) the employer is not fully aware of the meaning of the problem to be investigated; (2) the employer does not realize that he wants the research to produce a definite result; and (3) the employer asks the researcher to do something that cannot be done. I. Langnas.