How Virtual is Virtual: Designing for Distributed Work in Research and Development

How Virtual is Virtual:
Designing for Distributed Work
in Research and Development

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
GRANT
VOSS: VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS
SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS

CENTRAL RESEARCH QUESTION:
HOW DO VIRTUAL MODES OF
COMMUNICATION INFLUENCE THE
QUALITY OF DELIBERATIONS (KEY
CONVERSATIONS) AT VARIOUS
STAGES OF THE R&D CONTINUUM/
INNOVATION PROCESS?

Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237

Grant —  University of Illinois and STS
Back- Roundtable
ground —  Seven member team: Doug
Austrom, Betty Barrett, Betsy
Merck, Bert Painter, Pam Posey
and Ram Tenkasi
—  In final year of 3 year grant

STSR VOSS TEAM Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237 2 September 2012

Through dialogue and exercises, we have
the opportunity to …
Desired
Outcomes 1.  Develop a shared understanding of the
implications of virtuality on key
for this conversations/deliberations across the
innovation continuum
Session
2.  Consider how ‘fixes’ differ depending on the
degree of uncertainty in the R&D task

3.  Explore the value of coordination mechanisms
employed differently across the innovation
continuum, as ways to overcome the
“coordination costs” of global projects and
multi-university research

4.  Discuss the renewed relevance of ‘STS’ for
organization design in this age of virtual
collaboration and global innovation


Evolution of Socio-Technical Systems!
—  STS v1.0
-Routine work in a single organization – e.g., coal mines, factories, oil refineries
- Work groups with pooled identity
-Unitary conversion process
-Linear conversion sequence
—  STS v2.0
-Non-routine face-to-face knowledge work in single organizations – e.g., white collar office
work, professional services firm, NPD and R&D
-Individual performers, specialized expertise
-Multiple, concurrent conversion processes
-Nonlinear conversion flow
—  STS v3.0
-Virtual, non-routine work – e.g., R&D consortia, complex supply chains
-Individual performers and work groups distributed across multiple locations and/or
organizations
-ICT enabled
-Multiple, concurrent, independent, and interdependent conversion processes
-Nonlinear conversion flows


Six Stage Continuum of the R&D Process

R R D D D D
1 2 1 2 3 4
Pure Applied Exploratory Advanced Start-Up Scale-Up
Research Research Development Development (pilot plants, (volume & costs)
Work Work Work Work beta testing) Development
Development Work
Work
DON’T DON’T
KNOW KNOW KNOW
KNOW KNOW KNOW
WHAT WHAT WHAT
WHAT WHAT WHAT
we are (i.e. end state
looking for or objective)

DON’T KNOW KNOW DON’T KNOW KNOW
DON’T KNOW KNOW
HOW HOW HOW HOW
HOW HOW
to carry out to carry out IN DETAIL CONCEPTUALLY OPERATIONALLY
the research the research to achieve it
to achieve it to achieve it to achieve it

HIGH Uncertainty LOWER Uncertainty


Three Research Sites

—  Caltech- Orchid Project: fundamental research, R1
¡  Optical Radiation Cooling and Heating in Integrated Devices

¡  Tightly-Linked Collaboration for Design of Experiments & Device Fabrication among Laboratories
using 3 Technology platforms
¡  Pasadena, Switzerland and Austria

¡  Major challenge: creative research and design and knowledge generation in a complex virtual
setting

—  NACC: a virtual R&D eco-system, D2-D4
¡  Comprised of 29 NIA-funded Alzheimers Disease Centers (ADCs) and the National Alzheimers
Coordinating Center Center (NACC)
¡  Major challenge: Create Uniform Data Set agreeing upon and compiling data from the 29
different centers as the basis of research

—  LVG: a large video game developer, D3-D4
¡  Core team with distributed vendors in Philippines, China, India, Switzerland,
North America and across the parking lot
¡  Major challenge: Cost effective game development work with high quality and timeliness
completed at a distance for art production, engineering and testing

Six Stage Continuum of the R&D Process

R R D D D D
1 2 1 2 3 4
Pure Applied Exploratory Advanced Start-Up Scale-Up
Research Research Development Development (pilot plants, (volume & costs)
Work Work Work Work beta testing) Development
Development Work
Work
DON’T KNOW DON’T KNOW KNOW KNOW
WHAT WHAT WHAT KNOW
WHAT KNOW
we are looking (i.e. end state WHAT
WHAT
for or objective)

DON’T KNOW KNOW DON’T KNOW KNOW
DON’T KNOW KNOW
HOW HOW HOW HOW
HOW HOW OPERATIONALLY
to carry out to carry out IN DETAIL CONCEPTUALLY to achieve it
the research the research to achieve it
to achieve it to achieve it

HIGH Uncertainty LOWER Uncertainty

‘Orchid’ Project ‘Uniform Data Set’ Project ‘Large Video Game’ Project


Key Conversations/Deliberations:
Definition and Elements

—  Key Conversations are —  The salient elements of a
patterns of exchange and deliberation include the …
communication in which people •  Topics or problematic
engage with themselves or others issues facing the social
to reduce the equivocality of a entity about which people
problematic issue reflect and communicate
•  Forums in which they
occur which may be
structured, semi-
structured, unstructured
or ad hoc
•  Participants - both those
who are currently involved
and those who ideally
should be involved in the
deliberation

STSR VOSS TEAM Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237 September 2012

Examples of Key Conversations/Deliberations

—  Orchid
¡  What experiment shall we run?
¡  How shall we design the experiment?
¡  How shall we execute the experiment?
¡  How do we make sense of the results?
—  NACC
¡  What data will go in the UDS?
¡  What diagnostic instruments shall we use?
¡  Who will have access to the data?
—  LVG
¡  What new features shall we develop?
¡  What contractor shall we use for this work?
¡  What is the scope and time/cost estimate for this work?


Exercise Part 1

—  Directions: At your table, take 15 minutes to
discuss the following question:

¡  What might be potential barriers to effective
conversations/deliberations?

¡  Large group comments – 5 minutes


Examples of Knowledge Work Barriers
—  Lack of knowledge
¡  In the Orchid project, the technical procedures in two different
laboratories were discovered to be incompatible and initially
prevented development of inter-dependent experiments

—  Failure to utilize knowledge
¡  In LVG, corporate intelligence about particular vendor competencies
was not initially utilized by an individual division in their vendor
selection procedures
—  Failure to share knowledge
¡  In development of the NACC/UDS project, use of standardized data
collection was seen by some researchers as an imposition over other
data more suited to their own unique research interests

—  Lack of common frame of reference
¡  In LVG, the developers did not have a common frame of how to
conduct tests of the game

Exercise Part 2

—  Directions: At your table work for 10 minutes and
revisit the issue related to distributed (team)work
that you were asked to consider in Exercise 1

¡  How, what would you design to minimize the knowledge
barriers?
÷  Select one or two barriers to think through

¡  Table group report outs – a brief highlight from each
table


Coordination across the R&D Continuum

R1 D4

Shape and
Drive Reinforce Problem Solving

Converge Convey

Mutual Standardization
Adjustment Rules Based

Peer-to-Peer Hierarchical

Exploration Prescriptive

Uncertainty Certainty

Mystery Heuristic Algorithm

Most Significant Coordination Mechanisms in Case Study Virtual R&D Projects
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Sociotechnical Systems Framework for
Designing Coordination of Virtual R&D

STRATEGIES
(Mission, Collaboration
Agreements)

STRUCTURES
(Roles, Organization
Design)
PEOPLE TECHNOLOGY
(Skills, Relationships, (Collaboration
Values, Communications) Tools, Media)

PROCESSES
(Standards,
Schedules, Plans)

Design Implications – Open Discussion


How Virtual is Virtual: Designing for Distributed Work in Research and Development

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