The Design Of Organizational Structure For The Unction-oriented Virtual Research And Development Rganization

In the1990s, the concept of the virtual research and development organization wasfirst proposed. The virtual research and development organization as a new type ofresearch and development organization complements the traditional scientific researchorganizations and plays an important role in the research and development activities. Thefast development of the information technology provides good technical conditions for itsapplication and further development, and the globalization of science and technologypromotes its rapid development actively, but in the process there still exist some problemsin that the function of the virtual research and development organization don’t match itsstructure properly. The virtual research and development organizations with differentfunctions require different organizational structures to support, but the theoretical researchon the design of the organizational structure is scarce. Therefore, the design of the virtualresearch and development organization’s structure has certain theoretical and practicalsignificance.This paper begins with the definition and characterization of the virtual research anddevelopment organization, points out its three stages, analyzes the existing problems, andexpounds the future trend of the development of the virtual research and developmentorganization. And then based on the characteristics of the virtual research anddevelopment organization, this paper analyzes some main factors influencing the design oforganizational structure. These factors include: organization scale, technical level,organizational strategy and personnel quality. Furthermore, this paper uses the holisticapproach and the value engineering to summarize the design principle, design frame anddesign steps of organizational structure of the function-oriented virtual research anddevelopment organization. According to the principle of the optimal matching of theorganization structure and function, this paper completes the design of the organizational structure for the virtual research and development organization with different functions.Finally, this paper takes Pfizer’s design as a case, study the organizational structure of its’virtual research and development organization with different functions, and testing thevalidity of the structure proposed in the chapter3.