EAGER: Exploring Organizational Configuration as a Design Lever

EAGER：探索组织配置作为设计杠杆

• 批准号: 1332891
• 负责人: Zoe Szajnfarber
• 金额: $ 18.7万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-07-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1332891&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Exploring; Organizational; Configuration; Design

The objective of this EArly Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project is to explore the mechanisms through which different organizational structures drive design decisions in the research and development of complex technological systems. The study leverages a unique natural experiment that enables the first direct empirical comparison of the multi-decade evolution of two functionally identical systems, developed separately under different organizational structures. Although significant prior research has examined both the fit between technical and organizational architectures, and the implications of different technical architectures for system lifecycle properties, the question of how technical-organizational "fit" can drive desirable design outcomes remains unexplored. To answer this question, rich process data on the sequence of events, actions and decisions that describe the parallel development processes will be collected. The data includes (1) in-depth interviews with each of the key contributors, (2) proposals and progress reports written on a near annual basis, (3) design documents, (4) press releases and (5) journal articles capturing key outcomes. The data will be analyzed using a process tracing approach, enabling a link to the underlying mechanisms driving each design decision to the structure of the context of the corresponding technical and organizational architectures. If successful, the insights from this work have the potential to be transformative in that they will characterize organizational configuration as a new design lever; this could enable engineering organizations to harness research outputs more effectively and influence the structure of the technology they produce. In addition, this work has direct implications for current space policy debates on the role of centralized investment in technology development and industrial policy. In that context, prior work by the PI has been presented, at the request of executive-level officials, at both the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). More broadly, on-the-ground scientific data, on the actual design process, in real design organization, is the foundation for a revolution in the science of design engineering. These insights could yield advances in innovation productivity that will substantially accelerate the national (and global) economy.

探索性研究（急切）项目的早期赠款的目的是探索不同组织结构在复杂技术系统的研究和开发中推动设计决策的机制。 该研究利用了一个独特的自然实验，该实验能够对两个功能相同系统的多十年演化进行首次直接经验比较，这些系统在不同的组织结构下分别开发。尽管重要的先前研究已经研究了技术架构和组织架构之间的拟合度，以及不同技术体系结构对系统生命周期属性的含义，但技术组织“ FIT”如何推动理想的设计成果的问题仍然没有探索。为了回答这个问题，将收集有关事件，动作和决策顺序的丰富过程数据，这些事件，动作和决策将收集平行开发过程。数据包括（1）对每个关键贡献者的深入访谈，（2）近年来编写的提案和进度报告，（3）设计文档，（4）新闻发布和（5）期刊文章捕获关键结果。将使用流程跟踪方法对数据进行分析，从而使链接指向将每个设计决策推向相应的技术和组织体系结构的结构的基本机制。 如果成功的话，这项工作的见解有可能具有变革性，因为它们将将组织配置描述为新的设计杠杆。这可以使工程组织能够更有效地利用研究，并影响其生产的技术的结构。此外，这项工作对当前的太空政策辩论具有直接影响，涉及集中投资在技术发展和工业政策中的作用。在这种情况下，应欧洲航天局（ESA）和国家航空航天局（NASA）的要求，已应执行级官员的要求提出了PI的先前工作。更广泛的是，在实际设计组织中，关于实际设计过程的现场科学数据是设计工程科学革命的基础。这些见解可能会在创新生产力方面取得进步，从而大大加快国家（和全球）经济的加速。