Research Team Design and Management for Centralized R&D

Author

Griffith, Terri L. ; Sawyer, John E.

Author_Institution

Leavey Sch. of Bus., Santa Clara Univ., Santa Clara, CA, USA

Volume

57

Issue

2

fYear

2010

fDate

5/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

211

Lastpage

224

Abstract

We demonstrate from a multilevel field study of 39 research teams within a global Fortune 100 science/technology company that teams containing breadth of both research and business unit experience are more effective in their innovation efforts under two conditions: 1) there must be a knowledge-sharing climate in the team (arguably allowing the team to have access to the knowledge developed through the members´ breadth of experience) and 2) the team leader also has a breadth of research and business experience allowing for the member breadth to be knowledgably managed. We identify and interpret cross-level effects of team membership within organizational divisions and discuss implications for the management of central R&D teams and for future research on organizational dynamics. Our data suggest that it is possible to maintain a centralized R&D approach and still address market-focused milestones.

Keywords

innovation management; knowledge management; research and development; team working; R&D; innovation efforts; knowledge development; knowledge sharing; organizational dynamics; research and development; research team design; Bridges; Business; Companies; Innovation management; Knowledge management; Product development; Research and development; Research and development management; Technological innovation; Technology management; Innovation; R&D; teams;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9391

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TEM.2009.2023132

Filename

5208292