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VI THE NEED FOR RESEARCH The Committee views its deliberations and this report as marking only a beginning toward developing better policies for the utilization of scientific and engineering manpower. It believes that the appended papers (see Part Two, page 65 ff.) are important contributions to understanding of problems relating to scien- tific and engineering manpower utilization. The case studies reported on by Paul Cherington, the projections of manpower requirements in terms of national goals by Gerhard Colm and Leonard Lecht, the dis- cussion of the development of a national manpower policy by Frederick H. Harbison, the proposal for a manpower information system by Allen 0. Gamble, and the other special papers included in this report represent significant points of departure for additional research. Within the scope of the Committee's report more questions are raised than are answered. In concluding its report, therefore, the Committee identifies some of the needs for further study, and recommends that vigorous attention be directed to research bearing upon this subject. The Committee recommends that the government, indus- try, and the universities expand or initiate research efforts that will provide the broader perspectives and increased knowl- edge needed for dealing more effectively with the issues of scientific and engineering manpower utilization. Examples of research areas include: (a) the economics and dynamics of scientific and engineering manpower, (b) unused potential in human resources, (c) technological aids, (d) the organization in its operating environment, (e) the scientist or engineer in his working environment, (f) scientific and engineering manpower and public policy. 43
Topics that require study include: The economics and dynamics of scientific and engineering manpower. We need to know more about qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of the supply of scientific and engineering manpower; about the dy- namics of the market for this manpower; and about the sources of de- mand for it, including ways in which scientists and engineers themselves, through their own creative efforts, contribute to the demand for their services. We need urgently to know more about the contributions scien- tists and engineers are making and could make toward creating new ideas, products, and enterprises to help the nation adapt itself to changes, such as those that might be induced by reductions in defense expendi- tures or by introduction of automation. Also, we need to learn more about the geographical and professional mobility of scientists and engi- neers, so that we can, for example, influence this mobility more effec- tively in adapting to new requirements. Unused potential in human resources. Our ability to draw talented people toward scientific and engineering pursuits varies greatly among different segments of the population. Women constitute a large reservoir of talent still not sufficiently encouraged to enter fields of science and engineering, and often not fully utilized when well educated. The talent latent in underprivileged minority groups should everywhere be openly welcomed and fully utilized. Unused capabilities are possessed by many persons who have retired, whose energy, skills, and wisdom remain unimpaired. Technicians constitute an already developed resource that could make a more substantial contribution. The nation will have to nurture the intellectual capabilities of all these groups, if they are to contribute their efforts effectively when called upon. Research is needed to identify the characteristics of these latent resources and to define the educational, social, and economic steps that must be taken to develop and use them wisely. Technological aids. The possibilities inherent in new technologies for substantial augmentation of the abilities of scientists and engineers are great. More effective application of techniques for storing, retriev- ing, and disseminating scientific information is an obvious and well- recognized need. Improved communications can bring the community of science into closer and more mutually enriching interaction. It also can help disseminate education more effectively. New and better teaching aids, including programmed instruction, can enrich edu- cation and help relieve some of the pressure on the nation's educational plant and personnel. More extensive and imaginative use of computers in combination with scientists or engineers may greatly amplify the 44
intellectual power than can be brought to bear on scientific or tech- nological problems. Computer-aided engineering design may have pro- foundly beneficial effects on utilization. We need to push forward with these developments, and to encourage their wise use when and where they are available and applicable. The organization in its operating environment. The organization, which may be a firm, a university or college, or a government agency, is the means by which the efforts of scientists and engineers are translated into products and services to satisfy society's needs. The response of an organization to influences in its operating environment can affect the numbers and the effectiveness of the persons working within the organ- ization; and also can affect the relative distribution of those persons among different national needs. The development of large systems usually requires scientists and engineers in several different firms to interact successfully with each other and with their counterparts in one or more government agencies. The structure, policies, and financial condition of each firm, the capabilities of its management team, and the authority assigned to it can either facilitate or limit the interactions required. Incentives for firms to invest abroad can determine to a con- siderable degree the pattern of flow of scientists and engineers into or out of the United States. The decision of a government agency to ter- minate a program, or of a firm to shift from a military to a civilian prod- uct line, may make significant numbers of specialists available to a market not prepared to employ them. Research is needed on the organ- ization's response to those internal and external environmental changes affecting utilization. The scientist or engineer in his working environment. Although we have been counting scientists and engineers for years, we still do not ad- equately understand just what a scientist or an engineer does, what motivates him, what his objectives are, how his interests and his capa- bilities may be expected to change with time, or how he resembles or differs from his colleagues. Even less do we understand how creativity and innovation occur or how working conditions help or hinder these processes. We need to know how management decisions and practices affect the productivity of scientists and engineers; how shifts between project and functional forms of organization affect individual and group output; how project-core groups are formed and what makes them suc- cessful. We do not know how to express the cost in manpower utiliza- tion of major changes in programs, with their attendant dislocation and mobility. And we do not adequately understand how investment in the development and updating of human resources can be evaluated realis- tically. Although some of these questions are being studied, the Com- mittee believes that a great deal more research is required to elucidate 46
the ways in which utilization is affected by interactions between scien- tists and engineers and their working environments. Scientific and engineering manpower and public policy. Research is needed to help provide a rational basis for judgment concerning issues of public policy. Issues requiring research are suggested by questions such as: What lines of action will meet most effectively the rapidly expanding requirements of higher education during the next several years? How can scientists and engineers be brought to bear most effec- tively in the development and support of our foreign policy and foreign trade? What new measures could improve the preparation of young persons for a world that is likely to be substantially changed, tech- nologically and perhaps socially, by the time they enter the labor market ? How can defense and space technology best make its contribution to the civilian economy? In turn, how can scientists and engineers in de- fense best be utilized to ease the transitions of defense industry as defense expenditures stabilize or decline? What part can scientists and engineers play in solving the problems of technological unemployment? These are but a few examples of the issues of utilization to which re- search may make a contribution in the period immediately ahead. The United States is fast becoming a research-oriented society. Rational problem-solving is replacing decision by random trial and error. Growing pains unavoidably accompany such change, but we can reduce them by strengthening our understanding of this key group, the scientists and engineers, and of the environment in which they work. 4(5
