Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

Great (UNFULFILLeD) expeCtatIONS: tO BOLDLY GO Where NO 139
SOCIaL SCIeNtISt aND hIStOrIaN have GONe BeFOre
to encourage an enterprise of the size and importance of
NaSa to incorporate in it a mechanism that would enable it
to guide its actions with respect to optimizing its second-order
social efects.to this end, our program has been designed to
demonstrate that efective and meaningful behavioral science
research could be done in this complex area. 16
the chair of the aaaS committee was earl p. Stevenson, the recently
retired president and chairman of arthur D. Little, but he played only a nominal
role. 17 the real driving force was raymond a. Bauer. Bauer (1916-1977),
described by the New York Times as “a pioneer in the application of behavioral
sciences,” was a prolifc and widely enquiring social psychologist at the harvard
Graduate School of Business administration who wrote and edited over 20
books, ranging from interviews with Soviet refugees in the 1950s to analyses of
advertising in the 1970s. 18
Bauer’s interest in the space program began with a 1960 survey of the
opinions of business executives about the space program and collaboration with
the Brookings report. 19 In a 1964 talk, his interest grew because
the point to be made is that the space program because of
its highly visible nature, and the developing concern for its
second-order consequences, has played a unique and valuable
role that has turned our attention to problems we ought
to have been studying in any event. It seems to me highly
probable that just as the program of space exploration is the
leading edge of the advance of much of the new technology
(or at least serves as the symbol of this advance), in the same
way it may serve a very valuable catalytic function in getting
us to run our afairs better. 20
16 . “report of the Committee on Space,” Records of the Academy (American Academy of Arts and
Sciences), 1963/1964, 149, 155.
17 . “earl p. Stevenson, 84; ex-Director and head Of arthur Little, Inc.,” New York Times, July
5, 1978, B2.
18 . “raymond Bauer, 60; Business professor taught at harvard,” New York Times, July 11, 1977, 22;
see also Ithiel de Sola pool, “In Memoriam,” PS 10, 4 (autumn, 1977), 516-518, and Florence
Bartoshesky, “raymond a. Bauer: a list of his works,” Accounting, Organizations and Society 6, 3
(1981), 263-270.
19 . raymond a. Bauer, “executives probe Space,” Harvard Business Review 38 (Sep-Oct 1960), 6-14.
20 . “Space programs: the Joint responsibility of Business and Government,” 27, april 9, 1964. Box
5, fle 42, Series II-B. hBS research and Writing records – Writings, 1941-1978. raymond a.
Bauer papers, harvard Business School archives, Baker Library, harvard Business School.