Organization and Authority in Industrial Research

Problems of control and administration as they relate to the work of the scientists in industrial research are seen as dependent on the manner in which the laboratory organizes its authority. The "executive authority" of industry, when transferred to the industrial laboratory, gives rise to strain and conflict. Industry is, therefore, experimentally moving in the direction of incorporating elements of the university system of "colleague authority." A LL ORGANIZATIONS have a system of authority that governs the determination of policy, establishes criteria for selection and advancement of individuals, and gives expression to organizational goals. An understanding of these facets of authority in the industrial laboratory is vital to the adequacy of its administration. This article is concerned with the problems of control and administration as they relate to research work in the industrial laboratory. Implementing organizational control in the industrial laboratory hinges on the balance achieved between the scientist's sense of participation in the direction of his work and the exercise of adequate administrative controls by management. The solution to this problem is inherent in the manner in which the laboratory organizes its authority system.' The industrial laboratory as a research organization seems to require that its objectives be adequately expressed through its authority system. The major objective of the Pacific Electronics Corporation (P.E.C.)2 laboratories is contributing new findings in the electronics field that will in turn advance the objectives of the corporation.3 These new findings are a product of the work of the scientist in his professional role. The values of this role4 are so deeply imbedded in the scientist's professional self-conception as to impel him to seek a system of organizing authority5 that will permit their expression. The scientist needs an authority system that recognizes the characteristics of his professional role. He needs an authority system which allows him to search, discover, analyze, and publish his findings subject only to the "pre-established impersonal criteria"6 of science. He needs an authority system which permits autonomy and protects his self-esteem. In the face of these organizational requisites what type of authority system prevails in the industrial laboratory? EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY AND COLLEAGUE AUTHORITY7 Authority, as a system of controls prevailing in an organization, may be viewed as a continuum: at one end of the continuum is a type of organizational authority which may be described as execu1 See the analysis of authority as a system which "can operate 'upward' and 'sidewise' as well as 'downward' in the organization" in Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behavior (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1951), p. 12. 2 The Pacific Electronics Corporation is a fictitious name for a large electronic and engineering corporation. Its research is centralized in a laboratory employing about 300 scientists. A detailed methodological statement is contained in my recent monograph The Scientist in American Industry (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960). Frederick Harbison and J. W. Riley, Jr. made many helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 3The main authority in the P.E.C. laboratories, as will be seen, is directly related to this primary objective. 4 The concept of authority is not a central issue in the ideology of the professions. The member of a profession expects to defer only to superior professional knowledge and competence. In governmental and industrial bureaucracies there is a structured expectancy about authority and it is viewed as legitimate. For example, see: Talcott Parsons, "Suggestions for a Sociological Approach to the Theory of Organizations," II, Administrative Science Quarterly, 1 (1956), p. 237. 5 R. K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1949), p. 315. 6Ibid., p. 309 7 In this connection it is interesting to examine A. W. Gouldner's two types of bureaucracy in R. K. Merton, et al., (eds.) Sociology Today (New York: Basic Books, 1959), p. 403. This content downloaded from 40.77.167.69 on Tue, 24 May 2016 06:47:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ORGANIZATION AND AUTHORITY IN INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH 73 tive or nonprofessional authority;8 at the other end of the continuum is a colleague or professional type of authority. Executive authority has reference to a system of controls in which a superior in a hierarchical organization exercises ultimate control over his subordinates. It is an authority according to Merton which accrues to the executive based on his incumbency in a position and "occurs within the framework of pre-existing rules of the organization."9 It is not based on either devotion or respect for him as a person, "but on an adaptation necessitated by his rating power."'0 Industrial organizations are frequently examples of this type of authority system. Colleague authority refers to a system of control in which authority is shared by all the members of the working group. Authority is deemed to rest in the group rather than in an individual, as in executive authority. It is true that in colleague authority systems there is delegation of decision-making authority to individuals, but the members view such authority as originating in the colleague membership.