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

(Voss) Virtual R 的比较研究

• 批准号: 0943237
• 负责人: Betty Barrett
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-01-15 至 2013-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0943237&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Voss; Comparative; Study; Virtual; R&amp

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.

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏与再投资法》（公法111-5）资助的。 这项研究使用比较案例研究方法研究了研究和开发不同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镜头，以研究虚拟性如何影响四个不同研究和开发组织的工作中的讨论质量。尽管在面对面的环境中已经确立了作为研发过程的关键组成部分的审议，但对它们在虚拟背景下的功效并不了解。通过从私营部门和公共部门组织收集数据，将得出有效的虚拟组织设计理论。使用混合方法方法，将在整个研发连续性中研究这些站点的当前和前瞻性虚拟研究和开发项目，包括成功与失败项目的比较。使用比较案例研究方法，可以仔细研究虚拟研发审议的关键成功因素，从而对影响研发项目成果的社会和技术因素进行更深入和描述性的描述。 这项研究通过将审议分析方法扩展到虚拟组织的研究来推动社会技术系统理论和实践。审议是减少对非记录工作系统至关重要的事件的模棱两可的事件，尤其是涉及知识产生和知识利用的事件。然后，对审议的重点是一种检查非明显和违反直觉的工作模式的手段，这些方式通常是将其重点限制在正式组织，技术系统特征或各种IT解决方案的功效的方法上是看不见的。该项目的发现与其他研究和开发组织有关，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。从该奖项中产生的案例研究确定了关于虚拟审议的设计和管理方式的最佳实践将对多元大学中心，纯研究实验室，商业发展运营以及盈利或非营利性商业活动具有直接和实际的好处。这项研究的发现将在组织科学，人力资源和工程管理学科的主流学术期刊和专业会议上传播。将通过网络研讨会和会议进行对更广泛的公司社区和政府机构的虚拟组织的最佳实践的传播和共享。