EMBRY RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY

6/19/09
George Leath
MAS 643
(MANAGEMENT OF R&D FOR THE AVIATION / AEROSPACE INDUSTRY
FINAL EXAM
1. Answer the following?

A. Why is leadership important to R&D program success?

During the past 30 years a good deal of time has been spent observing groups
and the emergence of leaders. This observation has resulted in two
classification of leadership. The first leadership style involves maintaining
(M) the group by paying attention to the needs of the members and making
sure that conflicts do not become serious. The second leadership style
involves the actual task the group must perform (P). The leader must identify
the task and let the group no how and when it is to be done. Subordinates
require a certain amount of guidance from leaders or their activities will
become unrelated to the needs of the organization. Leadership challenges
people to work toward an ever-expanding greatness in the achievement of
organizational goals.

B. What leadership style is most conducive to an R&D organization?

Leadership in an R&D organization should provide the professional with an
intermediate amount of autonomy. One that considers both technical and
administrative work is important. The leader should be able to balance task
and relationship roles, articulate a vision and inspire / motivate followers to
transcend their expected goals and make it a reality. A good R&D leader
would encourage participation through consensus building, empowerment,
and the sharing of information and resources. He should facilitate growth by
fulfilling follower’s needs and goals and achieving the organization’s mission
/ vision.

C. How might you as an R&D manager implement this style?

As an R&D manager I would be the controlling force of the group, by
maintaining a predictable and ordered environment, making it clear to the
leaders that, activities would get done on time, efficiently, and within budget
and a preordained manner. I would stay focused on controlling and solving
problems, by providing assignments, policies, and directives. I would keep
communications open and provide leadership training, share knowledge,
encourage risk taking and influence leaders to tolerate diverse personalities.
Selecting the right individuals and then motivating them would be a key factor
in implementing a good leadership style.

2. Describe the three types of conflict and how you as an R&D manager would deal
with each type?
Intrapersonal conflict – occurs within individuals and consists of the following
forms. Role conflict, ideas about correct behavior for a person holding a
position in a social system. According to re-search there are three kinds of
roles, the prescribed, the subjective, and the enacted. Role conflict occurs
between technicians researchers, supervisors and subordinates, engineers and
organizations. A good example of role conflict in R&D organizations occurs
when the person is part of a team that is developing a new product that
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involves both research and marketing people. There are three kinds of
relationships between an R&D team and a marketing team, and they are stage-
dominant, process dominant, and task dominant. The greatest role conflict
usually occurs in the task dominant form of organization, since in this
structure the person is both a marketing person and a scientist. We should also
consider role ambiguity, an uncertainty about the exact meaning of a
communicate you received from a variety of significant others in the
organization. In dealing with these conflicts I would try talking with others,
taking direct action, withdrawing from the situation or simply resent it. Issues
such as individual preferences, situational variables would determine the
method I would use in solving the conflict. I would also consider the fact that
role conflict and role ambiguity are common- place in organizations and
facing the conflict head-on is usually very helpful.
Interpersonal conflict – involves situations like rewards structures, control of
goals, and insufficient assistance. Occurs between individuals with opposing
attitudes and values. Here three types of conflict in two distinct areas can be
defined. There can be conflict with peers, with supervisors, or with
subordinates and can occur in the technical area or the interpersonal area.
Conflict with peers, supervisors, or subordinates in the technical area involves
technical goals, milestones, the means of reaching a particular goal, and
interpretation of data. Conflict with peers and subordinates at the
interpersonal level involves personal likes and dislikes, trust, and fear that the
other person misperceives what one is doing. In coping with this type of
conflict I would be creative and try to reach win-win solutions. I would
develop super ordinate goals where both individuals would be dedicated to
reaching this common goal, and required each other to accomplish the goal. I
would create better opportunities for communications, seek help from
professional counselors, and consider restructuring the organization.
Inter-group conflict – conflicts between groups is very common in
organizations, an occurs between in-groups and out-groups. An in-group is an
individual that is willing to corporate; members consist of individuals who
trust each other. An out-group consists of people that are distrusted. Out-
groups are perceived as more homogenous than in-groups, in other words the
“other” people are “all the same”. In-groups are perceived as relatively
heterogeneous; the people are “all different”. These tendencies tend to
stereotype people of the out-group and perceive them more inaccurately than
the in-group, which creates conflicts between the groups. A special case of
intergroup conflict is intercultural conflict “culture”, the unstated assumptions,
beliefs, norms, roles, and values found in a group. Culture conflict occurs
whenever people of a group speak a different language including dialects
(e.g., black English), live in a different place (e.g., Australia versus Canada),
or have been socialized in different time periods (e.g., old versus young).
Other contrast such as differences in religion, social class, and race, can also
create intercultural conflict. I will first cope with the in-group, out-group
conflict and will utilize the same basic approach that was used in coping with
interpersonal conflict. Creating super-ordinate goals unachievable by either
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 group without the help of the other group. Creating a win-win environment
geared to the success of both groups, allowing for creativity between the
groups, and showing genuine concern for both groups. There are numerous
techniques involving training that are designed to improve intercultural
relationship, the basic four are the cognitive approach, the affective approach,
the behavioral approach, and self insight. The cognitive approach teaches
people the worldview of the other culture by introducing a series of critical
incidents describing interpersonal behaviors between the different cultures.
The affective approach involves exposing trainees to situations in which their
emotions are aroused when in interaction with members of the other culture.
The behavioral approach involves shaping the behavior of the trainee to make
sure that behaviors that are objectionable in the other culture do not occur.
Self insight is an approach designed to make the trainee understand how much
culture influences behavior, the goal is to give the trainee a chance to analyze
his or her own culture.

3. Answer the following.

A. Describe the steps towards team building and improving team performance.
Forming – attraction bonds, orientation to others, dependency and
inclusion are considered.
Storming - involves dissatisfaction, competition, stressful negotiation and
counter dependency is examined.
Norming – team develops structure, increases harmony, and roles
are defined and accepted, information is shared.
Performing – the team is orientated in achievement productivity, quality,
decision making, resource allocation, and interpersonal
interdependence.
Adjourning – Team closure, termination of duties, reduction in
dependency, and celebrates success.
In improving team performance I would examine the process for continuous
improvement, support an environment where all team members take
ownership of their process, products, and services. Create a structure for
greater team member involvement and insure that they are continually
involved in the design and redesign of their work. I would try and create a
High Performance Work System (HPWS).

B. If these steps or plan initially fail, what would you do next as manager of your
R&D organization?
If this procedure failed I would consider generating new ideas, and identifying
the barriers that caused the failure. I would concentrate on such things as
clear definition of roles further identifications of turf wars and hot potatoes. I
would investigate my supervisor’s leadership style to see if he may be
affecting the team. I would introduce brainstorming so that the team could
develop an effective feedback infrastructure that would foster an effective
team.

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4. R&D organizations typically perform best when they operate as teams or under a
participative environment. However, what are some of the difficulties with team
building that you might be faced with as an R&D manager? How would you as the
R&D manager overcome these difficulties?

The effectiveness of a team depends on the quality of the team members and
the coordination of their efforts. Some of the problems facing the development
of effective R&D teams are leadership risk, creation of a balance of team
skills (technical – interpersonal). Team building is also affected by cultural
differences, no long-term contingency plan or group coordination (who, what,
where, when and how). Many researchers have negative views of managers
or directors of R&D organizations; they want to share the managerial and
executive authority with the administrative structure. In overcoming these
difficulties I would create a collaborative environment where roles are
defined, diversity and trust are instilled, no misalignment between task &
individual relationship and open communication. Generate new ideas through
innovation, introduce a learning environment where scientist ask questions
such as, should I adapt, modify, reduce, substitute rearrange, reverse or
combine the process. I would utilize brainstorming and lateral thinking and
empower the team to be creative in reaching a common goal, organization
success.
5. Answer the following.

A. What are the major difficulties with performance appraisals in terms of an R&D
Organization?
In making performance appraisals, a certainty (yard stick) should be
considered. This is meant to decide whether an individual has measured up to
the level of performance of the evaluator. The performance appraisal system
tends to look at an individual in a negative sense instead of the contributions
they have made to the organization. R&D work is complex; supervisors
might judge their appraisal on one performance of an individual, which might
not provide a clue on total performance. Salary administration is also a
problem in appraisal systems, it creates the “halo” effect (because an
employee is good at one thing, he is assumed to be good at a lot of other
things), and it also creates the (leniency effect “everybody is first rate”).
Appraisal ratings tend to correlate job difficulty, age, pay, and sonority and
tend to increase by the years, these correlations are usually contaminated by
others factors.
B. As an R&D manager there are several ways to overcome these problems.
Utilizing the three-tier approach, forcing comparison among subordinates, asking
supervisors and management for their opinion of the individual in question.
Consider bringing in an outside source to evaluate the individuals professional
growth and their contributions to their field. One could also try and implement a
meaningful performance system with focus on the fowling three items, what does
an individual’s performance depend on? Why the performance appraisal is
needed? And develop a suggested Strategy.
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 THE PARADOXICAL TWINS

1. Explain the differences between what happened at ACME and OMEGA with
respect to effective R&D management principles discussed in class.
John Tyler of ACME received blue prints on Monday, July 11, and immediately
sent a memo to purchasing requesting that the purchase of all necessary materials.
He also sent the blueprints to the drafting department and asked that they prepare
manufacturing prints. The industrial engineering department was notified to
begin methods design. Tyler also sent a memo to all department heads and
executives indicating critical time constraints and how he expected that everyone
would perform as efficiently as they had in the past. ACME was heavy into
memos and did not have a face-to-face group meeting; John Tyler expected that
everything would go smooth as always. His leadership was very dominant and
overbearing. Employees were not empowered and communications were not
effective and there was no feed back system. The work environment became
hostile and a bit toxic and there was no clear-cut plan in place to reach the
organizational goal. They also missed the opportunity to share in technology
when OMEGA informed them they found a design flaw in the component and had
corrected it. By sending memos he delayed the project by not keeping his people
adequately informed. There was a definite break down in leadership and
management, which resulted in ACME shipping late and defective parts.

Jim Rawls of OMEGA held a meeting and informed his supervisors of an

upcoming project. Once he received the blue prints he meet with the supervisors
again and gave a thorough description of the project requirements. At a
subsequent progress report meeting, Omega’s team had discovered the defective
component and had come up with an alternate plan. OMEGA, by having an early
meeting gave their people time to prepare, and ounce they received the details
they meet again providing more communications and guidance. Leadership and
management were excellent and the employees were genuinely empowered. They
had an effective feed back system due to the meetings. They took advantage of
the transfer of technology by utilizing the Japanese component and got outside
help by getting formal approval. The leadership and management displayed at
OMEGA was key factors in getting their shipment out on time with no defects,
even though it was a little more expenses but, the customer was satisfied.

2. What do you predict happened to the final contract? Why?

In my opinion the final contract should and probably did go to OMEGA. Due to
the following issues, ACME shipped half of their required prototypes on July 29,
and the other half on Aug 2, and 10 of those were defective. On the other hand
Omega shipped all of her units on July 22, with no defects. The photocopier firm
was disappointed with Acme’s delivery delays and the further delays incurred in
repairing the defective units, even with Omega’s 4% higher bid I think they would
award the contract to OMEGA.

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 3. What CHANGES would you make at ACME to avoid delivery and performance
problems in the future?

I would not utilize memos as a course of communication for such a critical

project. I would empower employees and suggest creative thinking and let them
be responsible for their process design from start to finish. I would seek to gain
any out side existing technology and support that would help my company
achieve its goal. I would also establish a better communication and feedback
system between supervisors and management.

4. How would you go about making or implementing these changes at ACME (you can
assume they lost the contract with the photocopier company)?
As John Tyler I would examine the problems incurred with the contract, I would
get with my supervisors and brainstorm, allowing for two-way communication
with effective criticism. I would consider restructuring the organization an
institute a learning environment that was not be resistant to change. Re-define
company goals and set better guidelines for accomplishing them.

5. Jim Rawls has made you the new R&D manager and asked you to formulate a
strategic plan to capture future R&D projects fro ACME. Formulate a strategic plan
that will accomplish this goal.

I would first determine the organizations vision, mission and trends. then I would
identify what has been successful for the organization in the past, find out what
their strategic goals where. Utilizing the “SWOT” model I would then identify
any strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. Once all this information was
gathered, I would consider the allocation of resources, how much funding is
available for R&D. Then I would develop a specific action that the organization
needs to do to reach each of the goals and activities.

THE PARAGON RADAR CORPORATION

1. Identify the facts and issues of the problem?

The facts in this problem were that the company had a reliable product and only
dealt with government agencies; therefore they relied heavily on government
funding. They had no marketing department but relied on department heads to
develop their own business. Then the federal government drastically cut back
funding for the department of defense and NASA and business was scarce and
hard to get. The issues were getting new business, possible loss of jobs,
acquisition by another firm and uninteresting contracts.

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2. What are the positive aspects of the president plan with respect to running an R&D
Organization?
The president decided to use management principles; he cut out the middleman
and developed a centralized department with one boss. He gave them a clear
vision of company structure and goals and identified responsibilities. He allowed
for empowerment and lateral movement.

3. What aspects of running an effective R&D Organization does the president plan lack?
The president’s proposal lacked budgeting information, staffing requirements
facilities location, implementation time, and new-targeted business if any. It also
lacked a point of contact to coordinate the proposed study.

4. Propose at least two alternative solutions (emphasizing the R&D function of the
company)
Since the company had only done business with the government in the past, I
would assign a marketing gatekeeper to provide the organization with information
on the civilian market place. They would check the local competition and see
what demand there was for a high tech radar system and coordinate with the
organization for future prospective customers.

Another solution would be to appoint a marketing manager and have that person
attend a formal marketing school, or hire outside professionals to come in and
train and set up a marketing department.

5. Decide on one solution and state your supporting reasons for your final solution,
which should be based on the given facts and issues of the problem.
I would lean toward getting a school trained manager and setting up a regular
R&D marketing department so that the organization could get aligned with basic
management principles. This would be the long-term solution, since one of the
department heads had complained about how the company was organized, I think
that training would be a better solution.

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