Some Applications of Behavioural Research

The central claim is that behavioral science research can serve as a guide to administrative action when findings are codified into practical methods and demonstrated in applied settings. The editors reject the assumption that social research remains confined to academic journals or that application inevitably raises insurmountable ethical objections. A contemporary review noted that the volume is characterized by 'a sober-minded attempt to codify the process through which the findings of social research may serve the needs of persons with administrative responsibilities,' rather than being bogged down in polemics about social engineering . The book is therefore a casebook of applications rather than a theoretical treatise, and its argument is methodological and practical: research becomes useful when its process of translation into action is made explicit.

The volume was published in Paris by UNESCO in 1957 as part of its 'Science and Society' series, edited by Likert and Samuel P. Hayes Jr. . It runs 333 pages and consists largely of reports of meetings sponsored by the Foundation for Research on Human Behavior . Most contributors were staff members of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research or the Foundation for Research on Human Behavior, with exceptions including Simon Lesser of the Institute for Motivation Research and Francis Bourne of Columbia's Bureau of Applied Social Research . This institutional provenance matters: the book reflects the mid-century Michigan program's effort to extend survey research and organizational studies into practical administration, a mission UNESCO supported through its social science publications.

The eight chapters cover a range of applied areas. Likert's introductory chapter discusses using research as a guide for action, emphasizing the sample survey method. Stanley Seashore contributes two chapters on using research to improve leadership in large organizations, including methods for incorporating evaluation research into company leadership training. Hollis Peter summarizes research on researchers themselves, reporting that leaders of high performance-high morale research groups had more friends in the laboratory and spent more time socially with them than leaders of low performance-low morale groups . Simon Lesser and Hollis Peter address training programs for foreign nationals, and Irving Morrissett summarizes research in business forecasting. The contributors are predominantly Michigan and Foundation staff, giving the volume a coherent institutional perspective.

Reception was generally positive but noted the volume's limitations. Robert C. Angell, reviewing in Contemporary Psychology, observed a contrast between this volume and the first in the UNESCO series: whereas the earlier book addressed broad questions like inflation and employment, this one took up 'narrow areas of research and action' such as administrative leadership, group influence in marketing, and psychological surveys in business forecasting . Angell noted that in the earlier volume everything was tied to economic theory, while in this one 'each chapter stands by itself,' but he did not consider this necessarily a weakness . A review in the American Journal of Sociology described the collection as 'one more indication of a renewed interest in the practical applications of social research,' praising its sober codification of the research-to-action process . These reviews position the book as a useful applied casebook rather than a theoretical landmark.

The book historicizes Likert's management theory by showing the applied research context from which his System 4 framework emerged. While New Patterns of Management (1961) presented the four-system typology and linking-pin concept as a general theory, this 1957 UNESCO volume documents the practical, often narrow studies of leadership, group influence, and research administration that preceded and informed that theory. Seashore's chapters on leadership improvement and evaluation research, for instance, reflect the same Michigan research program that would later produce System 4. The volume is not a statement of the mature theory; it is a record of the applied work through which Likert and his colleagues tested and refined their ideas. Reading it alongside New Patterns clarifies the empirical and institutional foundations of the later framework.