Principles for effective Organizational structure

IntroductIon Just as a keystone supports an arch, so too some Organizational mechanism is required to support long-term connections be-tween the business and academic communities. (Matthews and Norgaaard, 1984, p. 176) For several decades, American research universities have been confronted with a difficult dilemma: industry has begun to de-mand research assistance which is long-term, mission-driven, multidisciplinary, and team-based; university values, norms and administrative practices are ill-equipped to handle and often an-tagonistic towards many of these needs. As we pointed out earlier, most universities have tried to resolve this incompatibility by creating and deploying boundary-spanning structures, specifically centers, which are more consistent with industry s needs and yet well integrated into the university proper.

An overview of the organizational design of a typical I/UCRC shows a simple structure centralized on strategic issues but very decentralized on research operations, formal at the top and at its industrial network, but low in formalization of the research function. Most of these features can be observed in the organiza-

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