Doing science in a culture of accountability:

accountability and trust

Lesley Hunt

Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit

A note!

• Preliminary discussion

• Attempt to explore ideas about trust by drawing together three arenas which impact on science – political, organisational and science practice

“It’s actually quite good because 99% of the people in [this CRI] hate [this CRI] - meaning hate corporate - can’t see any sense in what’s going on. It’s not just [this CRI]. It’s basically all the CRIs. You see any scientists in New Zealand and they’ll bitch about their organisations. It’s a great way to start a conversation! It’s good because with the new corporate image we are supposed to talk about loyalty and loyalty isn’t generated - you don’t demand it - it’s earned. And no-one’s been around [long enough] to have earned anything. And they won’t be. They will be gone in 5 years. So yeah, it’s a good interacting point.” (Wade, scientist)

The restructuring of science funding in New Zealand

• MoRST• FRST• CRIs• Companies in competitive, global environment –

expected to demonstrate “an adequate rate of return on shareholders funds” (CRI Act 1992)

• Lack of consultationThere is definitely a feeling amongst many working scientists that they are rarely consulted about policy and management issues. This was best summed up by one eminent local scientist saying ‘it’s like being an All Black who spends all his time on the reserves bench’.(Lancashire, 2001: 11).

Summary of political context

• Distrust of profit making institutions by general public

• Positioning of CRIs – asked to behave as businesses in a global competitive environment while still being responsive to Government policy

• Emphasis on profit • Government policy continually changing vs

science as a long-term enterprise• Creation of insecure and uncertain environment

The CRIs: criticisms

• Role of government and private sector confused – competing interests

• Competitive behaviour

• Role of IP

• Managerialism

• Short-term vs long-term research

• Morale

An example

“… CRIs were formed to service the sectors they are related to – dairy, meat, seeds, fertiliser, dah-de-dah. And between the chairman of the Board, X, and Y [CEO] … they took a very liberal interpretation of that and even started to get to the culture of telling us that we weren’t there just to service the industries, we were there for the interests of [this CRI] as an entity itself. So it was important for us to capture intellectual property and to exploit that in the best interests of [this CRI] - not necessarily the sector groups we were set up to support. So if the biggest return for us with certain IP was to go to America or Denmark, wherever, to get a return on that then we should do that rather than New Zealand. And I felt uncomfortable about that … I felt the obsession with maximising profit and chasing after commercial revenue at the expense of public good science revenue was harmful on science.”(Ex-employee)

Summary of organisational context

• Emphasis on financial aspects of organisation

• Seek from science, products and processes that will make money for company

• Commercial funding provides independence from Government policy (good and bad?)

• Try to use Government funding for company benefit rather than national benefit

Summary of organisational context cont.

• Outflank employees • Listen up to external environment• Pay less attention to internal environment• Encourage competitiveness - less likely to

collaborate with other organisations• Separation of science groups and services e.g. IT,

accountants, HR • Seek cheaper ways of controlling workers • Loss of institutional memory

The study

• Ethnography of a CRI

• Interviews and observations

• Why do scientific workers moan a lot?

• The meaning of work

• Response to restructuring

Trust at work: the impact of restructuring on scientific workers

“I’d like to think that my results can be trusted and that there’s not too much doubt that I’ve made a mistake. I mean it’s always possible but umm, yeah ... I think I know more the implications of making a mistake so you are more careful. You know that down the track it’s more likely someone is going to come back and look at your results for whatever purpose - usually to validate something or rule it out, umm, so you know that that’s a possibility so you want to be careful that you do get it right.”(Lisa, technical worker).

• Importance of trustworthiness, honesty and integrity

• Autonomy

The culture of accountability

“I’ve just found out that the provisional patents that we’ve written – somebody in corporate’s been going over them with a fine tooth-comb to see what commercial money they can make out of it and they won’t even ask us – they won’t even understand them. You know, they won’t have a clue. And they’re spending all these hours going through saying we could do this and we could do that and – I mean I just think that’s pathetic … and if anybody – I mean [X]’s on these patents and if anyone can make them fly [X] can. He’s done it before. He’s got patents. He’s got products … there’s almost that feeling that they think we don’t know what we’re doing. You know? I mean this [latest discovery] wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t known what we were doing. Anyway, it’s almost, well this has now become commercial and we know more about this – but they don’t. They’re just playing round.”(Raewyn, scientist)

The culture of accountability cont.“Somebody came down [from corporate] and was talking about this, you know, people skiving off early and stuff and I was just so cross. I just thought, everybody in this room – I looked around - is the sort of person who’s pulled their finger for [this CRI] … I mean we were complaining about different aspects but we weren’t anti-[this CRI], because they were all people who would really get stuck in but then, when they [Human Resources] get all picky about these tiny little details it makes you think, oh well, I’m off home at 5 ... And if [the CEO] and those guys think, well, financially it doesn’t look good. If they think that’s all that counts, then they haven’t got an idea of the work force and you know, they’ve let the finances rule …. It’s hopeless. … I actually think it’s a lack of insight .… Well, they [HR] think you’re skiving off with sick leave and they think you’re doing all that, but you’re not. If anybody started pulling a sickie in here, people would know, you know?”(Rae, scientist)

The response: estrangement and alienation

• Estrangement - feeling scientists and technical staff had of no longer belonging or being able to contribute anything of value to the organisation

• Alienation - experience of scientists of losing control over their work and the end product of that work

Scientific workers resist

experience of estrangement

through outflanking organisation by use of distancing techniques• alternative value systems• making corporatisation invisible

receive feedback from work

by

appropriation of work, resources and time

in order to

protect identity and autonomy over identity and meaning of work

in order to

survive in work

by complianceby commitment

in order to

Scientists resist

experience of alienation

to

protect identity and integrityand exercise autonomy

in order to

appropriate work, resources and time

by

direct resistance

compliance

Through use of distancing techniques• alternative value systems• playing the game

to

‘do’ science

in order to

Summary - impact on scientific workers • Time pressures - work is not able to go through

scientific process of replication and peer review• Pressure of patents/secrecy• Play the game• Listening up – not conducive to learning• Competitiveness - less likely to collaborate,

encourages selfishness, individualism• Instrumentalism – loss of enthusiasm• Alienation, estrangement, resistance, appropriation• Stressful! Challenges integrity.

Discussion: societal trust

• Insecurity and uncertainty

• Trust levels in society

• Culture of suspicion

Discussion: trust in science

• Who do scientists trust?

• Reasons for distrusting the work of scientific workers

• Scientific workers outflanked by the system

• Trust as a necessary component of good science

Conclusion

• Is trust relevant?

• People still trust and hope to trust

• Is it possible for science to be trusted in the present context?

• An aesthetic of trust or a culture of suspicion - responses to postmodernism?

It’s all so stressful!