Performance Of Research Units Research Articles

Assessing publication performance of research units: extensions through operational research and economic techniques

Many quantitative measures exist to assess the publishing outputs of research units such as university departments or institutes. In addition to well-known issues with such measures, further shortcomings include inadequate adjustments for relative entity sizes and researcher intensity, the extent to which research is concentrated among a few rather than all researchers and lags between staffing and publication. This article presents a further array of possible measurement indices, based on operational research and economic ratios, which are capable of adjusting for each of these shortcomings, and which analysts can combine with relatively little effort into existing measures.

Organizational environment and performance of research groups—A typological analysis

In this paper an attempt is made to construct a typology of research units according to a set of organizational features and relate the resulting classification to a set of performance measures. The organizational features include (i) resources and facilities for research; (ii) Communication and transfer of new ideas; (iii) Planning and organization of research; and (iv) Social psychological environment for research. The performance measure include (i) General RD (ii) Recognition of the work of the research unit by the scientific community; (iii) User-oriented effectiveness; and (iv) Administrative effectiveness (budget and schedule compliance). This study is based on the subset of empirical data on 220 research units collected in India for the third round of the UNESCO International Comparative Study on the Organization and Performance of Research Units (ICSOPRU). Twenty three measures of organizational environment, operationalized by multiple indicators, were chosen as discriminant criteria for the construction of the typology, using a classification computer programme SYSTIT (Systeme' de Typologie Iterative). The relationship between typology groupings and performance measures was analyzed through multiple correspondence analysis. This study brings out that resources and facilities for research are a necessary but not a sufficient condition of performance. The sufficiency condition implies a positive work environment, effective communication within and outside the research group and a conceptually exciting research programme.

Analysis of work climate perceptions and performance of research and development units

This paper reports findings from a study on the perceptions of work climate and the patters of relationships between work climate dimensions and performance of research and development units in six countries. The study is based on the analysis of the subset of date collected in Argentina, Egypt, India, Republic of Korea, Poland and UkSSR for the second round of International Comparative Study on the Organization and Performance of Research Units. The following dimensions of work climate have been usec: morale, openness, job satisfaction, work contacts, career opportunities, satisfaction with supervisor, information on research plans, research autonomy. Stepwise regression analyses were carrier out separately for each country and also on global sample to find out the important dimensions of work climate in explaining the variations in the performance of RD and (2) user-oriented effectiveness. The implications of this study for management of research and development groups are discussed.

Effect of professional competence, managerial role and status of group leaders to R&D performance

This paper examines the following basic issues of leadership in research units: (1) characteristics of the leader and the functions performed by him that predict the image of his quality; and (2) the role of leadership in enhancing the performance of the research unit. Analysis is based on data collected on 1460 research units in six countries for the second round of International Comparative Study on Organization and Performance of Research Units. Variations in the characteristics and role of leadership in different institutional settings and countries are analyzed through POSCOR (ranking programme based on partially ordered sets). Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to examine the common pattern of relationship of various indices of leadership with the image of leader's quality and three measures of effectiveness — scientific, user-oriented and administrative. Analysis was repeated for each country to explore the stability in the pattern of relationships and to identify universal indices that have consistent relationships across countries. Implications of the results are discussed.

The S & T potential of Mexico and Hungary

Mexico and Hungary carried out a survey of their national S & T potential in 1985–86, under the framework of the UNESCO International Comparative Study on the Organization and Performance of Research Units (ICSOPRU). A set of questionnaires were administered to heads of research institutions, heads of research units, and core members of research units. Comparison between both S & T systems shows that science is in a more advanced development stage in Hungary than in Mexico. The Hungarian scientific infrastructure is larger than the Mexican one by a factor of four. Also, science as an organized body of researchers is older in Hungary than in Mexico. Science in Hungary is more practically oriented than in Mexico. The S & T system in Hungary has strong links with the productive sector and hance gets substantial support from it. Mexican science, in contrast, is not strongly related to the productive sector, and does not get much financial support from it. Hungarian science is more internationally oriented. Hungarian researchers publish more than Mexican researchers, although a fraction of Mexican units have a publication rate comparable to highly productive Hungarian units. Both S & T systems have many needs in terms of human and material resources for work over the next four to six years. In-depth analysis of available data will shed more light about the S & T potential of both countries.

Scientific Productivity: The Effectiveness of Research Groups in Six Countries.

List of exhibits Foreword by Unesco Preface Part I. Introduction: 1. The International comparative study on the organization and performance of research units: an overview Y. de Hemptinne and Frank M. Andrews 2. The international study: its data sources and measurement procedures Frank M. Andrews Part II. Organization Factors and Scientific Performance: 3. Individual publication productivity as a social position effect in academic and industrial research units Karin D. Knorr, Roland Mittermeir, Georg Aichholzer and Georg Waller 4. Leadership and group performance: a positive relationship in academic research units Karin D. Knorr, Roland Mittermeir, Georg Aichholzer, and Georg Waller 5. Externally determined resources and the effectiveness of research units Veronica Stolte-Heiskanen 6. Some problems of research planning: data from Hungary compared to other Round 1 countries Agnes Haraszthy and Lajos Szanto 7. Patterns of influence and the performance of research units Salomea Kowalewska 8. The size and age of Swedish academic research groups and their scientific performance Rikard Stankiewicz 9. Communication between and within research units Nicole Visart 10. Motivation, diversity and the performance of research units Frank M. Andrews Part III. Methodological Reports: 11. Ratings of research-unit performance Joseph Bonmariage, Edmond Legros and Michel Vessiere: 12. The analysis strategy of the Hungarian research team and some results on R and D facilities Peter Hunya, Arpad Halasz and Csaba Fajszi 13. Classifying research units by patterns of performance and influence: a typology of the Round 1 data Gerald A. Cole 14. Estimating the construct validity and correlated error components of the rated-effectiveness measures Frank M. Andrews Appendix.