Managing Creativity in Science and Hi-Tech

Offering key insights into managing people working on scientific projects and high-tech enterprises, this practical volume addresses issues unique to these pressurized environments and will be required reading for supervisors and policy makers alike.

Addressing the issues unique to managers of creative technical staff, this guide reflects not only Ronald Kay's long experience observing and teaching successful management techniques, but also treats the expanding challenges due to increasingly globally-based projects and staff. As before, Kay's guide helps readers to prepare themselves, graduate students and others to understand and improve their managerial skills and covers such practical, yet sometimes overlooked, steps such as: individual and team behavior of creative technical staff; managing their own and others' R&D projects; hiring, evaluating and compensating technical staff; R&D proposals and administrative functions; and presentations, meetings and organizational culture. New to this edition are a chapter on the global impact of high-tech enterprises and sections on the roles of foundations and government funding and task-force participation. Also tackled are the basics of starting, financing and staffing venture-capital-funded enterprises. What's more, this book also serves to increase the awareness and knowledge base of anyone who needs to meet the challenge of managing people with the creative energies that drive technologically-based economic growth.

Distills key insights from Kay's long and multi-faceted career in R&D management, including differences between academic research and corporate labs Synthesizes techniques to meet the unique challenges managing creative technical innovators Analyzes specific details of managing projects, departments or small enterprises, and global projects with multi-cultural aspects New coverage includes a chapter on the global impact of high-tech enterprises and material on foundational and government funding and the influence of the Internet Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Ronald Kay moved on to hold a wide range of management positions in IBM R&D departments. He is also an experienced university teacher in the areas of management, information technology and computing. Most recently, Ronald Kay has been active as an independent consultant to the information technology industry, specializing in the management of R&D, large information systems, and technology assessment. He has also played a leading role in the establishment of the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California at Berkeley.

Inhalt

Introduction.- Outline.- Is there a Need to Manage Creative People?.- Managing your Own Work.- Qualifications of Managers.- Managing a Project.- Managing a Department or Small Enterprise.- Managing Creative People in the High-Tech Environment.- Evaluation of Research and Development.- Administrative Skills.- Starting a New Enterprise or New Project.- Financing Creativity.- Organizational Culture.- Impact of National Culture.- What the Behavioral Sciences Have to Offer.- Management Training Opportunities.- Recommended Reading.