Implications For Organizational Design Research Articles

Interorganizational transfer of technology: A study of adoption of NASA innovations

The study investigated the effects of: seven techno-economic factors, extent of top management support, six dimensions of organizational climate, and three modes of joint decision-making, on the adoption of NASA innovations. Seventy-three cases in sixty-five organizations were studied. Data were collected through field interviews and questionnaires. Parametric influences of communication channels and involvement of the innovator were examined. Implications for organizational design were considered. The data indicated that top management support was of primary importance in the success of product innovations. But techno-economic variables were of primary importance in the success of process innovations. The data also indicated that organizational climate and conflict resolution mechanisms were different in the successful and unsuccessful cases. Involvement of the innovator in implementation of the project was also found to be important.

A Generalized Goal Decomposition Model

A decomposition model is developed which can be interpreted as a representation of decision-making in a three-level hierarchical organization. The central unit coordinates decision activity by generating goals for a subordinate level of management units. These latter are responsible for generating the economic indicators that (1) allow the central unit to evaluate its goal generating policies, and (2) guide the alternative generation activities of third level operating units. Because of the absence of a global objective function for the organization the decision activity is shown to be dependent on the structure of the organization (i.e., the solutions of the model are affected by the structure and degree of decomposition). Thus, unlike existing decomposition models, the model treats organization structure as a variable in the decision-making process. This feature of the model is shown to have implications for organizational design.