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Research Profiles

product development research, manufacturing for understanding the pursuit of research (Cam-
research, and so on. Similarly, research work is eron & Quinn, 1998; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983),
often described by such terms as scientific and a number of focus groups were conducted with
technological research or the specific content, scientific researchers to more specifically identify
i.e. physics, chemistry, or biology. Again, there attributes of a research environment. The focus
is a need for general dimensions of research tasks group discussions uncovered a number of unique
that can be applied across these various situations tensions in managing research, which demon-
such as the degree of complexity or diversity in strated not only that competing values exist in
the research team and the size of the research pro- the research environment, but that these values
gram or inter-organizational network. Until these differ depending on the research objectives and
general dimensions are developed and linked, it tasks. For example, a tension mentioned often in
is not possible to identify the correct managerial these discussions was between researchers desire
practices for linking the nature of the research task and need for autonomy and managements desire
with the kind of desired outcome. In summary, and need to focus research and meet deadlines. In
the increasing importance of research and these their study of productive climates for scientists,
two lines of reasoning provide a compelling case Pelz and Andrews (1976), found similar tensions
for the importance of our perspective of Research such as these prevalent and important to consider
Profiles based on tasks, objectives, as well mana- in managing scientists because of their significant
gerial styles and managerial challenges. impact on performance. The findings of the ex-
ploratory study and subsequent surveys suggest
that the diversity of research projects, programs
THE BASIC DIMENSIONS FOR and organizations can be sorted according to two
RESEARCH MANAGEMENT STYLES primary dimensions for research objectives and
two primary dimensions for describing the nature
What characteristics might one desire in a catego- of the research work or task.
rization of research management styles? Ideally,
one should encompass dimensions that tap into The Research Objectives Dimension
the fundamental dilemmas, tensions and prob-
lems of conducting research. Since our interest We define the research objectives dimension as
is in making meaningful distinctions, we want to Degree of Radicalness in the Scientific or Techno-
isolate multiple dimensions of research objectives logical Advance on a continuum from incremental
and tasks. Another concern is to connect choices to radical. In slight contrast to the Schumpeterian
about objectives as much as possible to the exist- notion of the degree of radicalness, which fo-
ing literature and, in particular, to the literature cuses primarily on the competitive impact of an
on innovation. invention (Dahlin & Behrens, 2005), we would
To provide new insights about research argue that the degree of radicalness in research
management styles across a wide range of dif- includes the degree of change in the state of the
ferent kinds of research projects, programs and art, the centrality of the research problem, and the
inter-organizational networks, we conducted an discovery of a pattern that upsets existing theory
inductively-based exploratory study, funded by or a technology that creates a market niche. For
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), to help scientific research, the task environment is the
identify the critical factors facing the research knowledge world or the state of the art, that is,
workers and managers. Utilizing the Competing how much is known, and what is considered to be
Values Framework as an organizing framework an important scientific concern or requirement.

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