About this issue

After the series of special issues over the past year and a half-Project Selection (November 1974), Innovation (February 1976), and the Management of Interdisciplinary Policy Research and Analysis (May 1976) — this issue covers a wide range of topics in the overall field of management of research, development, and engineering. The Daltons present an approach to improved operation of engineering groups through some of the newer approaches to organizational and individual development. Many R, D, & E organizations have tried different approaches to improving communication, decision making, and other aspects of group operation. Here is a particular one, based on the growing field of humanistic psychology, which includes many different techniques for achieving openness, self-awareness, and personal growth. In the search for improved effectiveness, many managers have also tried to improve the climate in their groups and organizations for another reason-for the very sake of improving the climate-in the hope that this will make the working environment a nicer place to be. Where specific and convincing economic justification for any new training program or management approach is required, such an objective, by itself, may not be acceptable to the people paying the bills or running the organization. However, one can always make the argument (if not prove it) that more satisfied people are more productive than less satisfied people and that organizational climate significantly affects satisfaction. Souder and Rubenstein present a more formal and rigorous approach to improving R, D, & E effectiveness through administrative experimentation (see the May 1974 special issue on this subject). The suggested experimental approaches derive from research on the R&D/innovation process in a wide variety of contexts.