CAREER: Teams, Task and Technology in High-Technology Manufacturing Industries

本研究探讨了高科技制造业中社会系统与技术系统的适当匹配问题。该研究的一个中心主题涉及员工团队：他们的设计、实施和管理。需要特别关注的是通过跨职能团队促进组织的生产、工程、营销和研发部门成功集成所必需的基础设施需求。该项目被分解为三个相互关联的领域，每个领域都解决一组独特的研究问题：(1)如何将先前的团队效率模型（在低技术和服务行业中开发）转变为更高技术的工作场所？(2)在白领或“知识工作者”项目团队中，自主性与沟通之间的长期互动关系是什么？(3)哪些先进的通信技术可以帮助虚拟团队克服距离的障碍？拟议研究的目标是通过广泛的实地调查和实验工作，开发和测试白领和车间员工的团队绩效模型。本研究将有助于了解高技术制造行业的工作组织。为车间工作团队和白领项目团队创建预测模型将增加我们对团队有效性的认识，同时为设计原则的创建提供基础。这些原则部分与生产、工程、营销和研发部门的整合有关，总体上解决了团队设计、实施和管理的问题，当制造商寻求提高组织绩效时，这些原则将给他们带来相当大的好处。将研究成果转化为课堂教学的案例研究将通过指导学生解决涉及动态高科技产业中社会和技术制造系统联合的复杂非结构化问题的方法来加强工程教育。

This research addresses the proper matching between social and technical systems within high-technology manufacturing industries. A central theme of the research concerns employee teams: their design, implementation, and management. Of special concern are the infrastructural requirements necessary to facilitate the successful integration of an organization's production, engineering, marketing, and research and development departments via cross-functional teams. The project is broken down into three interrelated areas, each addressing a unique set of research questions: (1) How will prior models of work team effectiveness (developed in low-technology and service industries) be transformed in higher technology workplaces? (2) What is the long-term interaction between autonomy and communication on white-collar or `knowledge worker` project teams? (3) What advanced communication technologies can aid virtual teams in overcoming the handicap of distance? The objectives of the proposed research are to develop and test, via extensive field investigation and experimental work, models of team performance for both white-collar and shop-floor employees. The proposed research will contribute significantly to the understanding of work organization within high-technology manufacturing industries. The creation of predictive models for both shop-floor work teams and white-collar project teams will add to our knowledge of team effectiveness while providing the basis for the creation of design principles. These principles, in part pertaining to the integration of production, engineering, marketing, and research and development departments and in total addressing questions of team design, implementation, and management, will be of considerable benefit to manufacturers as they seek to improve organizational performance. The translation of research results into case studies for classroom teaching will enhance engineering education by guiding students in solution approaches to complex, unstructured problems involving the union of social and technical manufacturing systems in dynamic high-technology industries.