Some Structural Features of Relations Between The Department of Defense, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Their Principal Contractors

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Abstract
From a social-psychological viewpoint comparative temporal trends in contracting relations between private industrial organizations and NASA and the Defense Department are examined. Evidence is presented of stable and strongly convergent tendencies in the working relations among these parties, but accompanied by noteworthy variations in pattern as between NASA and Defense Department relations with their industrial contractors. The former exhibits more concentration but less stability than the latter, but gives evidence of moving in the direction of increased stability whereas the latter shows opposite tendencies. The findings are analyzed in terms of Galbraith-Weidenbaum “convergence hypotheses” and it is concluded that they are suggestive of the operation of a “mastery motive” working, under specified conditions, to both sustain and dissipate exchange relations.

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