The relationship between scientists and other decision-makers†

The paper deals with the relationship between scientists and other types of decision-maker. The author, basing his analysis on a schema devised by Paterson, distinguishes four types of authority—structural, sapiential, personal and moral. He discusses the various kinds of R&D decision-making levels and the authority appropriate to them and gives examples of where each may be exerted in an organisation. No form is effective unless it is accepted by all members of the relationship; sometimes dysfunctioning occurs because of inappropriate use of a particular form, a situation likely to occur in R&D where a high degree of specialised knowledge can be applied at hierarchical levels which may have somewhat restricted structural authority. He gives advice on how clashes of the different kinds of authority could be avoided. His overall conclusion is that the management of professionals could be effected more smoothly if all involved had a more complete understanding of the interplay between the types of authority.     

浅谈土的特性与试验

土的分类及渗透变形研究是解决水利工程中边坡与基础稳定的基础工作。在水利水电工程建设中,科学试验是理论分析和工程验证的基础也是最关键的环节。     

How can we predict management potential in research scientists?

The success of an R&D operation depends on selecting the right speciailists to occupy management positions. Errors of selection mostly arise because the choice is made on the basis of the candidate's current performance as a scientist or technologist. However, the author makes the point that persons likely to make good Rand D managers differ qualitatively from good researchers. Good scientists adopt an innovative, unconstrained, independent approach to their work, have high self-esteem, are not much interested in people and, above all, prize technical soundness. R&D managers are interested in people, active, enterprising and want to manage.
The organization's problem is therefore to find reliable ways of predicting management potential with sufficient but not exclusive regard to current performance. The author recommends the use of a Career Aspirations Programme, based on exposure to the processes operating in an Assessment Centre. This is a systematic procedure using an array of personnel evaluation techniques through which a person is made aware of the demands of a management job and managers made aware of the likelihood of that person's meeting them.
At the end of the process a course of personal development is agreed upon. In concrete terms this means for the potential manager that promotion may follow. Especially important if the verdict is that he or she is to continue as a technical specialist, the job may be re-designed to give it more scope and impact, or the person concerned may be retrained or placed under the care of a senior colleague acting as a mentor.     

PDCA循环在科研项目中的应用

介绍了ISO9000族标准的"过程方法"及PDCA循环,将PDCA循环贯穿于科研项目运行全过程,确保项目执行的每道环节、每个步骤、各个阶段按要求严格进行质量管理,从而达到"优良成果"的最终目的。并以"跨流域长距离引调水工程系统风险分析和安全保障关键技术研究"项目为例,介绍了PDCA循环方法在科研项目中的应用。     

The implications of research on the R&D manager's role to the selection and training of scientists and engineers for management

A methodology for improving the process of selection and development of scientists and engineers for management is presented. This involves (1) specifying the R&D management role in terms of both behavior and style; (2) utilizing such a specification to estimate ‘probabilities of trainability’ and (3) employing the probabilities as criteria for the allocation of resources among managerial selection efforts versus training and development.     

Postgraduate scientists and R&D: the role of reputation in organisational choice

This paper reports on a series of interviews with postgraduate scientists in a number of UK universities. The interviews were designed to investigate the attitude of young scientists to employment in the pharmaceutical industry. The sample consisted of postgraduates in the biological sciences and included a broad cross-section of universities. The primary objective was to ascertain each student's ideal employer and to establish the role organisational reputation played in that choice. Students not intending to seek employment in commercial R&D were asked to explain why they had made that decision. The research established that knowledge of potential employers in the pharmaceutical industry was concentrated on two major companies, ICI and Glaxo. Students not considering the pharmaceutical industry indicated that lack of academic freedom was their major concern.     

制药企业的科研机构管理特点与新思路

目的浅析制药企业科研机构的管理在整个研发工作中的重要性,并提出切实可行的改进办法。方法本文通过分析制药企业科研机构管理的功能及特点,从满足科研人员差异化需求的角度入手,并结合作者自身工作实践,提出制药企业科研机构管理的新思路。结果与结论制药企业科研机构的管理工作应同科研工作一样不断进步、不断创新。     

The effects of emotional intelligence on job performance and life satisfaction for the research and development scientists in China

To demonstrate the utility of the emotional intelligence (EI) construct in organizational studies, this study focuses on the effect of EI on job performance among research and development scientists in China. We argue that EI is a significant predictor of job performance beyond the effect of the General Mental Ability (GMA) battery on performance. This predictor effect is supported by results on a study of research and development scientists working for a large computer company in China. Our results also show that a self-reported EI scale developed for Chinese respondents, the WLEIS, is a better predictor of job performance than the scale developed in the U.S., the MSCEIT. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Problems faced by R&D managers in Canadian federal government laboratories

The paper conducts a critical review of the problems faced by middle to first-line managers in managing R&D in Canadian government laboratories. The data come from the published literature, interviews with R&D managers, and information obtained from government employees undergoing training as R&D managers.
The problems are numerous and serious. They arise from a multiplicity of causes related to underfunding and bureaucratic management practices that do not allow for the special nature of R&D. Hiring freezes, staff reductions, travel restrictions and reductions in training budgets are all consequences of underfunding, resulting in an aging workforce and technological obsolescence. Bureaucratic administration rules set by central agencies constrain the freedom of R&D managers to manage effectively, and limit low-level participation in policy-making and planning. The result is that too many management posts are filled by under-achieving scientists and engineers, with resultant consequences for originality and efficiency.
The authors believe that the only cure is to undertake proper funding, recognise the special operational needs of R&D management, and select managers for managerial ability in addition to technical competence.     

The lasting qualities of PERT: Preferences and perceptions of R&D project managers

This survey was conducted on the perceived popularity of PERT and PERT-type management systems; whether PERT'S applications were static, increasing, or decreasing, and whether its use was by choice or imposition. The extent of applications of PERT for managing various types of research and development (R&D) was examined with the view to ascertaining its individual popularity when applied to (a) basic research, (b) applied research, or (c) development projects. In addition, an inquiry was made into the estimated expense of PERT systems to plan and control projects as a percentage of the budget. The results of the survey are presented and discussed relative to various sizes of R&D organizations.     

A rational‐expectations revision of Makadok's resource/capability synthesis

Makadok has recently developed a mathematical model aimed at synthesizing the resource‐based and dynamic‐capabilities views of the rent creation process. One unstated implicit assumption in that model is that each bidding firm in the resource market is ignorant not only of the content of rival firms' private information, but also of the quality (i.e., the noisiness or reliability) of that information. Consequently, that model does not qualify as a rational‐expectations Bayesian Nash equilibrium—a fact that both generates questionable results (e.g., the possibility of negative expected profits) and impedes any effort to extend the model. The rational‐expectations critique in economics points out that this sort of nonrational assumption becomes increasingly implausible as economic actors learn more about each other's patterns over time through repeated interactions (in this case, as bidders repeatedly compete against each other to buy different resources over time). So, over the long run, the only truly stable, viable, and robust assumption would be rational‐expectations behavior. The primary purpose of this paper is to put Makadok's model on the firmer methodological footing of rational‐expectations Bayesian Nash equilibrium, so that it will no longer generate questionable results, and so that future researchers can more easily extend it. The secondary purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that this shift to rational‐expectations assumptions has little substantive impact on the testable hypotheses generated by Makadok's original model. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Occupational Disease and Career Trajectory in Hard Coal, 1870–1930

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, workers in the anthracite industry commonly followed career paths that led to respiratory impairment. In turn, work-induced pulmonary difficulties explain much of the downward mobility of older miners in this period. Managerial practice both accommodated and exacerbated disability. The United Mine Workers of America dealt with this problem primarily through agitation for legislative reform.     

Establishing the determinants of internal reputation: the case of R&D scientists

This paper discusses the factors which determine the human resource reputations of science-based organisations. Reputation, in this context, refers to the extent to which scientists regard the department in which they work as a good employer, and implicitly, a good place to practise science. As a consequence, this study is concerned with internal rather than external reputation. The R&D departments of ten science-based organisations employing approximately 1500 scientists were included in the study. The sample of 402 respondents was representative, in terms of age, sex, qualifications and experience, of the population of scientists in the organizations included in the research. All employees were educated to at least the level of a Bachelor of Science degree (BSc) and in many cases had obtained a higher degree, Master of Science (7.0%), or Doctor of Philosophy (35.6%). The perceptions of employees are reported; it was beyond the scope of the research to examine the managerial views on reputation.     

国外技术标准与科技研发协调发展的机制研究

1国外技术标准与科技研发及成果概述1·1技术标准类型国外技术标准类型主要包括国际标准、洲际或区域标准、国家标准、政府各部门标准、专业标准(或行业标准)以及公司标准。随着全球经济一体化的发展,标准化已成为一个重要的国际性问题,各种国际性的标准体系激增。国外工业发达     

Broadband expectations and the convergence of ranks

Broadband Internet service to widely held to be a significant contributor to economic development and global competitiveness, and comparison of adoption rates across countries are common. This paper presents evidence that the relative broadband Internet adoption ranks across the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (“OECD”) countries are converging to the wireline telephone adoption ranks in the mid 1990s. This was a time when wireline telephone service had reached maturity, but before consumers began to abandon traditional telephone services for mobile services and Internet telephone technologies. As such, in the absence of better data on household adoption, wireline telephone rank is a useful proxy for a country's ultimate fixed-line broadband penetration rank. Having such an educated guess available regarding broadband rank should reduce the amount of anxiety over rankings, since similar rankings across the two services implies suitable broadband performance. Large departures, alternately, may be a cause for concern or delight. Like prior analyses, the findings suggest that the adoption of communications services is largely an economic and demographic issue.     

A mathematical model for projecting the demand for scientists and technologists in national R & D institutes

This paper presents an analytical framework for man-power planning which is being developed as an aid to projecting the demand for scientists and technologists in India. It is presented in the hope that it might be of interest to people concerned with this issue In other developing countries. In using the model the main problem is that of measuring the output in the R & D institutes. In attempting this it is inevitable that some degree of subjective judgment is involved. The method adopted is described in the paper, and using a very simple input—output type of matrix and data taken from five-year plans, some preliminary results have been obtained which enable an assessment to be made of the demand for various kinds of scientists and technologists in the national R & D institutes in India.     

‘Good’ case research in industrial marketing: Insights from research practice

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the emerging debate about the use of the case methodology in industrial marketing. We conducted a content analysis of the 145 case studies published in three key journals (Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing and Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing) over a 10-year period (1997-2006). The findings highlight the dominance of case research in qualitative industrial marketing research. They also lead us to distinguish between three different practices that influence perceptions of ‘good’ case research in this scholarly domain: ‘common’ practice, ‘best practice’ and ‘innovative’ practice. Our contribution lies in problematising what ‘good’ case research is, and showing how research practice - not just methodological literature - has a role in generating methodological conventions in a disciplinary field.     

Re‐Examining Advances in Occupational Licensing Research: Issues and Policy Implications

Much has changed in the realms of occupational licensing since BJIR last ran a special issue on the subject in 2010. The number of occupations subject to licensing has been growing, the data available to investigate the incidence and effects of licensing have improved immeasurably, and the policy environment surrounding licensing has changed. This issue reflects these changes with eight papers from North America and Europe covering the incidence of licensing, and its effects on wages, inequality, employment, quality of service provision and rent extraction by the organizations who undertake licensing.