EAGER: Exploring Organizational Configuration as a Design Lever

这个早期探索性研究奖助金项目的目标是探索不同的组织结构在复杂技术系统的研究和开发中驱动设计决策的机制。这项研究利用了一项独特的自然实验，首次对在不同组织结构下分别发展的两个功能相同的系统的数十年演变进行了直接的经验比较。尽管先前的重要研究已经检查了技术和组织体系结构之间的匹配，以及不同技术体系结构对系统生命周期属性的影响，但是技术-组织“匹配”如何能够驱动期望的设计结果的问题仍然没有被探索。为了回答这个问题，将收集有关描述并行开发过程的事件、操作和决策的顺序的丰富过程数据。这些数据包括(1)对每个主要贡献者的深入访谈，(2)几乎每年撰写的提案和进展报告，(3)设计文件，(4)新闻稿和(5)捕捉关键成果的期刊文章。数据将使用过程跟踪方法进行分析，从而能够将驱动每个设计决策的基本机制与相应的技术和组织架构的上下文结构相关联。如果成功，这项工作的见解有可能具有变革性，因为它们将把组织结构描述为一种新的设计杠杆；这可能使工程组织能够更有效地利用研究成果，并影响他们生产的技术的结构。此外，这项工作对当前关于集中投资在技术开发和产业政策中的作用的空间政策辩论有直接影响。在这方面，应执行级别官员的要求，欧洲航天局(欧空局)和美国国家航空航天局(美国航天局)都介绍了国际空间局先前的工作。更广泛地说，在实际设计过程中，在真实的设计组织中，实地科学数据是设计工程科学革命的基础。这些洞察力可能会带来创新生产率的进步，从而大幅加快国家(和全球)经济的发展。

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.