High Technology Organizations Research Articles

The role of operational research in organizational decision making

An increase in the complexity of modern organisations and their interactions with the environment and each other has lead to a corresponding increase in the complexity of the organizational decision making process and the various factors on which decisions need to be based. Although there is currently much debate amongst both OR academics and practitioners as to how OR should respond to this increase in complexity the public manifestations of this debate have been confined largely to academics talking to each other. This paper is intended to contribute to a rectification of this situation by indicating how OR is currently used in one particular large, bureaucratic, high technology organization, and how it is spontaneously evolving to meet the demands of increased complexity. This discussion is based on an empirical study, and on experience of the author of OR in this and other similar organizations. It is concluded that very few major decisions appear to be directly influenced by OR studies although the latter are frequently used in a ‘justification’ role to support decisions already taken. An increase in awareness is however becoming apparent of the many indirect benefits that may accrue to the organization from the OR process. The nature of these indirect benefits and the ways in which they might be increased are discussed.

Organization and Management of Human Factors in High Technology Organizations

The Technical Group on Organizational Design and Management is interested in determining organizational characteristics of successful firms which have Human Factors Groups or Departments within their structure. Of particular interest is the organizational design employed by these companies and how the human factors function is incorporated into this framework. Also of interest is the degree of differentiation and the extent to which integrating functions have been or are now present in the organization. One way to learn about these considerations is to examine organizational programs, noting initial design, subsequent changes, management practices, and problems encountered in initiating human factors efforts. Another method by which we might learn about alternative management systems, organizational design, and problems encountered is to consult those who have the responsibility for managing human factors programs in large, high technology organizations which have incorporated the human factors function into their design.

Technological forecasting and planning exercises in engineering curricula

To sensitize graduate students in engineering to the multidisciplinary nature of decision making in contemporary situations, the elements of technological forecasting have been used as the basis for a graduate course. The principal objective is to use the technological forecasting approach in a structured problem resolution sequence, one of which is discussed here. Faced with a hypothetical problem of diversification in a medium-sized, high-technology organization, the student group employed objective trees, cross-impact matrices and structured interviews (Delphi rounds) in order to define quantitatively the nature and scope of opportunities open within the framework of economic, societal, political, and technological environments pertaining to their situation. Delphi-style debates, using a Consensor, were used to resolve group or individual conflicts. The exercise is intended to expedite adaptation of graduate engineers to the environment (industrial, social, etc.) within which they will be expected to perform as useful decision makers.

Diagnosing conflict determinants in project management

Project managers frequently feel deficient in two particular areas. First, they often encounter difficulty in forecasting actions which may lead to unproductive conflicts and disagreements with those who support them. Second, once a conflict has developed, they often have difficulty in finding an appropriate method to satisfactorily resolve the disagreement. This research reports an exploratory study which focused on delineating a number of propositions on specific determinants of project management conflict in high-technology organizations. The sources of conflict uncovered were then empirically tested by polling the expert opinions of 100 project managers in a wide variety of task-oriented situations.