ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS: AN APPLICATION OF CAMERON'S METHODOLOGY

• Main Author: MOSER, MARTIN ROY
• Language: ENG
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 1983
• Subjects: Management
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8317487

This dissertation studies organizational effectiveness in research and development of facilities. The basic research question of this dissertation is whether it is possible to measure organizational effectiveness in R & D units. Its main intent was to develop a descriptive model of organizational effectiveness for R & D settings. The proposed outcomes of the dissertation were achieved: (1) discovery of the major factors of organizational effectiveness in R & D settings; (2) development of instrumentation for defining and measuring organizational effectiveness in these settings; and (3) development of descriptive models that may be useful to managers in R & D settings in evaluating the effectiveness of their organizations. The research consisted of six steps replicating in another environment the methodology utilized by Cameron (1978b) to study organizational effectiveness in institutions of higher education. A mail survey of 400 R & D managers was conducted. One hundred twenty-four questionnaires were returned and compiled, representing a 31% return rate. The results show that the most popular measures of performance in R & D settings are the quality of output, the degree of goal attainment and the amount of work done on time. Eleven groupings of variables or dimensions were found to constitute organizational effectiveness in R & D facilities. They were: Organizational Synergy, Unit Health, Information Flows Within the Unit, Employee Career Development, Unit Adaptability, Employee Professional Development, Unit Creativity, Cooperation Within the Unit, Employee Motivation, Degree of Unit's Work Efficiency, and Achievement Recognition Within the Unit. Statistical procedures largely confirmed the internal reliability as well as the discriminant validity of these dimensions. Further, an indication of construct validity of the eleven dimensions was achieved.