Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2022
In his memorandum, “The Role of Applied Social Science in the Formation of Policy,” Professor Merton has stated that “… all applied social science involves advice (recommendations for policy).” While this statement obviously does not mean that the social scientist is limited solely to giving advice, it does imply a frame of reference in which the primary function of the social scientist appears to be obtaining information, analyzing it, and presenting the results to the policy-maker.
1 The development of this point of view to its present stage has been the work primarily of Elton Mayo, Professor Fritz J. Roethlisberger of the Harvard Business School, and Associate Professor George C. Homans of the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University.