Suchergebnisse

Bezug auf Mexiko, Spanien und Irland

The article presents a conceptual model that hypothesizes how information technologies may assist in accomplishing two key functions of communication in research and development. The first function is to provide state-of-the-art information on the organizational technologies that are employed. This function is typically carried out via a functional organization structure, which groups together individuals with similar technical specialties. The second function is to accomplish coordination across technical specialties applied to the same task or project. This is typically accomplished by a project form of organization, which groups together individuals working on the same task. The cost of selecting one structure is the loss of the advantages of the other. Information technologies, such as electronic mail, computer conferencing, bulletin boards, and document search and retrieval systems, may be employed to augment the chosen structure and compensate to some degree for its limitations.

A year-long investigation was undertaken to determine the impact, of a radical new scheme of office layout on work-related behavior, communication, and performance. The office layout under investigation is best described as "nonterritorial". It is an open floor plan arrangement, but goes far beyond the traditional open-space office, removing not only office walls, but most permanent stations as well. Employees (product engineers) work at large round tables, which are distributed through the office area, and may locate themselves anywhere that they wish on any given day, or at different times during a day. The experiment was successful to the extent that employees preferred the new arrangement over the traditional one- and two-person offices they had previously occupied and that communication within the department increased significantly. It was unsuccessful in that no measurable increase in departmental performance was registered over the period of the study.