Research On The Basic Path And Operation Mechanism Of Interdisciplinary Organization Design In Research Universities

Since the 2 1 st century,remarkable achievements have been made in the interdisciplinary development of research universities.Universities are the products of institutions,the combination and configuration of decision-making hierarchy and organizational boundaries,forming a diversified and interdisciplinary organizational design.This study aims to explore the basic path and operation mechanism of the interdisciplinary organizational structure design of research universities,and to extract the mechanism of effective combination and coordination of organizational elements to make them an organic whole,so as to provide Suggestions for the development of the interdisciplinary organization of research universities in China.The internal integration of organizations and the integration between organizations and external relations are two core dimensions to measure the inter-disciplinary organizational structure and operation mechanism.This study investigates the internal integration of organizations from the "decision-making hierarchy" dimension of "centralization--decentralization" in organizational theory,and the integration of organizations with external relations from the "organizational boundary" dimension of "strong boundary--weak boundary".Centralization means that the decision-making power of an organization is completely determined by the top management of the organization,and the decision-making power is concentrated on the upper level of the organization,emphasizing vertical communication and control,which is a mechanical organizational structure.Decentralization means that the dominant structure of an organization is an organic organizational structure,in which the initiative and creativity of the lower levels are given priority to,the decision-making power of the organization is concentrated in the downstream of the organization,and horizontal communication and cooperation are emphasized.The relationship between the organization and the external related organizations is reflected in the organizational boundary,that is,the integration relationship between the organization and the external related organizations,such as schools,departments,governments,enterprises,etc.The strong boundary of an organization refers to the clear boundary between the organization and external related organizations,and the low communication and cooperation intensity.Conversely,the weak boundary represents the frequent communication and high integration between the organization and other external organizations.It is found that there are four basic ways of interdisciplinary organizational structure design in research universities,which are independent,dependent,matrix and clusterAn independent interdisciplinary organization is an interdisciplinary organization that is independent of a university or established at the university level.The latter is generally independent of traditional colleges and departments,and has a horizontal relationship with each department within the university,and is usually an independent interdisciplinary research center or research institute.Form includes two kinds,one kind is the independent college to establish the interdisciplinary center,another is independent of the interdisciplinary center are established within the university,including two types,on the one hand is from top to bottom field level to establish interdisciplinary organization,on the other hand it is traditional in the department of internal growing from bottom to top and set up the university interdisciplinary organization.Independent interdisciplinary organizations adopt centralized vertical management model,with the university management or the council composed of the university and the government managing all affairs.At the same time,the weak boundary strengthens the highly integrated and extensive cooperation between interdisciplinary organizations and other external organizations,and has the boundary integration of personnel.When deep skills are critical to achieving organizational goals,when organizations need to control and coordinate through vertical hierarchical chains,and when efficiency is the key to success,a freestanding structure is the best model.Peers interdisciplinary organization structure design is an interdisciplinary organizations rely on a college in the university,the use of the existing teacher interdisciplinary activities,resources,equipment,teacher’s personnel management and the scientific research activities in the college or department of internal finish,usually set up within the university faculties of interdisciplinary research centers and laboratories.Dependent interdisciplinary organizations adopt centralized decision-making hierarchy mode,and set up independent administrative leading group on management to manage the daily work within the organization and assign responsibilities to people,which has obvious mechanical structure characteristics of centralization and regularization.Due to the small development force of the dependent organizations,they can only rely on the superior departments to obtain resources.This strong boundary makes the communication and cooperation between the organizations and the external related organizations less and the border staff less.Suitable for fewer departments and oriented by fixed interdisciplinary departments,it is necessary to rely on strong faculty strength to develop interdisciplinary organizations.The design of the matrix interdisciplinary organizational structure is an interdisciplinary institution that spans multiple departments or even several colleges in a university.The typical feature of this structure is that the personnel management of teachers is conducted in the department,while the scientific research activities are completed in the laboratory,mainly in the form of an interdisciplinary center or laboratory jointly established by the departments.The matrix organization design adopts the decentralized organic management mode,the decision-making power of the organization is concentrated on the personnel at the bottom,and it has the characteristics of teamwork,participation and decentralization.The relatively independent matrix organizational structure strengthened the strength of the organizational boundary.Most of the organizations flow within the various departments of the university,and the integration and communication with the external organizations are weak.When resources(manpower,equipment)of interdisciplinary academic organizations need to be flexibly distributed among multiple departments and laboratories,matrix organizational design structure is the most ideal model.Cluster interdisciplinary organizational structure is designed to build interdisciplinary clusters around "problems" or projects for interdisciplinary research.Such interdisciplinary organizations are usually formed in the form of clusters or laboratories and other non-faculty.Cluster interdisciplinary organization design is also a decentralized decision-making management model,power is concentrated on the teachers,with the head of the cluster giving feedback to the cluster teachers.In this horizontal structure,power is distributed to each cluster,and each cluster can participate in decision-making,cluster teachers can participate in projects,and achieve multi-direction cooperation within the cluster.This kind of organization design boundary is weak,can give full play to the creativity of the actor to the greatest extent.The cluster organization has many departments,large differentiation and large integration personnel,which is suitable for the interdisciplinary institution that conducts research with the orientation of "problem".Finally,the key mechanism that can effectively combine and coordinate the elements of interdisciplinary organizational design to make it an organic whole is that the research university regards interdisciplinary organization as the basic form of the organizational structure of academic institutions in the university and promotes the development of interdisciplinary through active innovation of organizational design.