(Voss) A Comparative Study of Virtual R&D Organizations: A Socio-technical Systems Analysis

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。本研究采用比较案例研究的方法，探讨了不同研发阶段的有效虚拟组织的特征。社会技术系统分析将被用作理论透镜，以检查虚拟如何影响四个不同研究和发展组织工作中的审议质量。虽然审议作为研究和发展过程的一个关键组成部分已经在面对面的情况下得到了很好的确立，但它们在虚拟环境中的功效却知之甚少。通过收集来自私营和公共部门组织的数据，将推导出研究和开发中有效虚拟组织设计的基础理论。使用混合方法，将研究这些网站当前和未来的虚拟研发项目，包括在整个研发连续体中对成功与不成功项目进行比较。使用比较案例研究方法可以更仔细地检查虚拟研究和开发审议的关键成功因素，从而对影响研究和开发项目成果的社会和技术因素进行更深入和描述性的说明。本研究通过将审议分析方法扩展到虚拟组织的研究中，推进了社会技术系统的理论与实践。审议是减少对非常规工作系统至关重要的事件的模糊性，特别是那些涉及知识生成和知识利用的事件。然后，关注审议是检查工作的非明显和反直觉模式的一种手段，这些模式通常对于将其关注限制在正式组织、技术系统特性或各种IT解决方案的有效性上的方法来说是不可见的。这个项目的发现与其他研究和开发组织相关，这些组织越来越多地通过虚拟组织进行知识生成和产品开发，特别是需要大规模、多机构努力的科学项目。该奖项产生的案例研究确定了如何设计和管理虚拟审议的最佳实践，将为多大学中心、纯研究实验室、商业开发运营以及盈利或非营利商业活动带来直接和实际的好处。这项研究的结果将在组织科学、人力资源和工程管理学科的主流学术期刊和专业会议上发表。将通过网络研讨会和会议向更广泛的企业界和政府机构传播和分享有关虚拟组织的最佳做法。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This study investigates the characteristics of effective virtual organizations across different stages of research and development using a comparative case study approach. Socio-technical systems analysis will be used as a theoretical lens to examine how virtuality influences the quality of deliberations in the work of four different research and development organizations. While deliberations as a key component of the research and development process has been well established in the face-to-face context, not much is known about their efficacy in the virtual context. A grounded theory of effective virtual organization design in research and development will be derived by collecting data from both private and public sector organizations. Using a mixed methods approach, both current and prospective virtual research and development projects from these sites, including comparisons of successful versus unsuccessful projects will be studied across the research and development continuum. Using a comparative case study approach allows for a closer examination of the critical success factors of virtual research and development deliberations, resulting in more in-depth and descriptive accounts of the social and technical factors that influence research and development project outcomes. This research advances socio-technical systems theory and practice by extending the deliberation analysis method to the study of virtual organizations. Deliberations are equivocality reducing events that are critical to nonroutine work systems, especially those involving knowledge generation and knowledge utilization. A focus on deliberations is then a means of examining the non-obvious and counterintuitive patterns of work that would normally be invisible to approaches that limit their focus to formal organization, technical system features, or the efficacy of various IT solutions. Findings from this project are relevant to other research and development organizations that are increasingly conducting knowledge generation and product development via virtual organizations, in particular, scientific projects that require large-scale, multi-institutional efforts. Case studies generated from this award identify best practices of how virtual deliberations are designed and managed will be of direct and practical benefit to multi-university centers, pure research labs, commercial development operations, and for profit or non-profit business activities. Findings from this study will be disseminated in mainstream academic journals and professional conferences in the organization sciences, human resources and engineering management disciplines. Dissemination and sharing of best practices on virtual organizations to the wider corporate community and government agencies will be conducted through webinars and conferences.