The Secret of Success: The Double Helix of Formal and Informal Structures in an R&D Laboratory

摘要

Polly Rizova has written a book that describes her study of a small R&D laboratory in a Fortune 500 company. She applies qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the interaction of formal and informal social structures in this small but complex organization, where members can be assigned to five projects at a time, and the formal structure of groups coexists with a web of project assignments. In her words, she explores "how the acquisition, sharing, and utilization of knowledge in R&D environments is constrained or enabled through positions of centrality and allocation of roles and responsibilities" (p. 102). Three chapters (2-4) present her findings, which she derives from participant interviews, a tool called Qualitative Comparative Analysis, and social network analyses.rnRizova's first finding consists of four "critical success factors" that interact to make successful projects more likely: (1) open and informal communication patterns, (2) staffing the project with individuals respected for technical competence, (3) staffing with individuals respected for organizational expertise, and (4) strong project support by corporate management. I admire her focus on interaction effects and wish more researchers would do the same. Her focus on the effects of combinations of factors is also refreshing, although what constitutes "success" in this setting is subjective and therefore somewhat ambiguous.