TY - JOUR
T1 - "Shielding" the knowledge transfer process in human service research
AU - Gano, Gretchen L.
AU - Crowley, Jocelyn Elise
AU - Guston, David
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SES 0322505. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors would like to thank Barry Bozeman, M. B. Crowley, the various employees of the Department of Health and Human Services and the downstream organizations who generously gave of their time and expertise, and the anonymous reviewers who helped improve the quality of the manuscript. All remaining errors are our own. Kindly address correspondence to Jocelyn Elise Crowley at jocelync@rci.rutgers.edu.
PY - 2007/1
Y1 - 2007/1
N2 - Knowledge utilization studies aim to understand the pathways whereby research moves from a specific set of producers to a specific set of consumers. Broadly speaking, two sets of explanations exist: (1) the engineering model, which focuses on the inevitability of science in advancing knowledge, and (2) the socio-organizational model, which stresses the importance of communication between and among groups as the critical factor in promoting utilization. This study asks both research managers at the Department of Health and Human Services and representatives from a particular set of consumer organizations to elaborate on the qualities of the research process that make knowledge most useful to them. We find that the qualities valued in both communities signal convergence around a novel third approach - the shield model - in which aspects of the original two models reinforce a powerful professional norm of objectivity that shelters the knowledge production and transmission process from external political pressures.
AB - Knowledge utilization studies aim to understand the pathways whereby research moves from a specific set of producers to a specific set of consumers. Broadly speaking, two sets of explanations exist: (1) the engineering model, which focuses on the inevitability of science in advancing knowledge, and (2) the socio-organizational model, which stresses the importance of communication between and among groups as the critical factor in promoting utilization. This study asks both research managers at the Department of Health and Human Services and representatives from a particular set of consumer organizations to elaborate on the qualities of the research process that make knowledge most useful to them. We find that the qualities valued in both communities signal convergence around a novel third approach - the shield model - in which aspects of the original two models reinforce a powerful professional norm of objectivity that shelters the knowledge production and transmission process from external political pressures.
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U2 - 10.1093/jopart/muj013
DO - 10.1093/jopart/muj013
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33845796469
SN - 1053-1858
VL - 17
SP - 39
EP - 60
JO - Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
JF - Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
IS - 1
ER -