N A T I O N A L S C I E N C E F O U N D A T I O N

G R A N T V O S S : V I R T U A L O R G A N I Z A T I O N S

S O C I O - T E C H N I C A L S Y S T E M S

C E N T R A L R E S E A R C H Q U E S T I O N : H O W D O V I R T U A L M O D E S O F

C O M M U N I C A T I O N I N F L U E N C E T H E Q U A L I T Y O F D E L I B E R A T I O N S ( K E Y

C O N V E R S A T I O N S ) A T V A R I O U S S T A G E S O F T H E R & D C O N T I N U U M /

I N N O V A T I O N P R O C E S S ?

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

Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237

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Grant Back-ground

! University of Illinois and STS Roundtable

!  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 September 2012

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Desired Outcomes for this Session

Through dialogue and exercises, we have the opportunity to …

1.  Develop a shared understanding of the implications of virtuality on key conversations/deliberations across the innovation continuum

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

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

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Evolution of Socio-Technical Systems!

STSR VOSS TEAM Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237

!  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

September 2012

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HIGH Uncertainty LOWER Uncertainty

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

Six Stage Continuum of the R&D Process

Pure Research

Work

DON’T KNOW

WHAT

we are looking for

DON’T KNOW

HOW

to carry out the research

Applied Research

Work

DON’T KNOW

WHAT

(i.e. end state or objective)

KNOW

HOW

to carry out the research

Exploratory Development

Work

KNOW

WHAT

DON’T KNOW

HOW

to achieve it

Advanced Development

Work

KNOW

WHAT

DON’T KNOW

HOW IN DETAIL

to achieve it

Start-Up (pilot plants, beta testing)

Development Work

KNOW

WHAT

KNOW

HOW CONCEPTUALLY

to achieve it

Scale-Up (volume & costs) Development

Work

KNOW

WHAT

KNOW

HOW OPERATIONALLY

to achieve it

R 1

R 2

D 1

D 4

D 2

D 3

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Three Research Sites

STSR VOSS TEAM Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237

!  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

September 2012

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HIGH Uncertainty LOWER Uncertainty

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

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

Pure Research

Work

DON’T KNOW

WHAT

we are looking for

DON’T KNOW

HOW

to carry out the research

Applied Research

Work

DON’T KNOW

WHAT

(i.e. end state or objective)

KNOW

HOW

to carry out the research

Exploratory Development

Work

KNOW

WHAT

DON’T KNOW

HOW

to achieve it

Advanced Development

Work

KNOW

WHAT

DON’T KNOW

HOW

IN DETAIL

to achieve it

Start-Up (pilot plants, beta testing)

Development Work

KNOW

WHAT

KNOW

HOW CONCEPTUALLY

to achieve it

Scale-Up (volume & costs) Development

Work

KNOW

WHAT

KNOW

HOW OPERATIONALLY

to achieve it

R 1

R 2

D 1

D 4

D 2

D 3

Six Stage Continuum of the R&D Process

Key Conversations/Deliberations: Definition and Elements

STSR VOSS TEAM Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237

!  Key Conversations are patterns of exchange and communication in which people engage with themselves or others to reduce the equivocality of a problematic issue

!  The salient elements of a deliberation include the … •  Topics or problematic

issues facing the social entity about which people 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

September 2012

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Examples of Key Conversations/Deliberations

STSR VOSS TEAM Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237

!  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?

September 2012

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Exercise Part 1

STSR VOSS TEAM Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237

! 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

September 2012

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Examples of Knowledge Work Barriers

STSR VOSS TEAM Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237

!  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

September 2012

!  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

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Exercise Part 2

STSR VOSS TEAM Supported by NSF-VOSS Award #0943237

! 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

September 2012

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Coordination across the R&D Continuum

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

R1 D4

Drive Problem Solving Shape and Reinforce

Converge Convey

Standardization Rules Based

Mutual Adjustment

Peer-to-Peer Hierarchical

Exploration Prescriptive

Uncertainty

Mystery Heuristic Algorithm

Certainty

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15

STRUCTURES (Roles, Organization

Design) PEOPLE

(Skills, Relationships, Values, Communications)

TECHNOLOGY (Collaboration Tools, Media)

PROCESSES (Standards,

Schedules, Plans)

STRATEGIES (Mission, Collaboration

Agreements)

Sociotechnical Systems Framework for Designing Coordination of Virtual R&D

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

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Design Implications – Open Discussion

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