MBO and R&D productivity: Revisiting the system's dynamics

Knowledge-intensive organizations, including R&D, must rely upon job design and motivational incentives for the majority of their efforts towards increasing productivity. Management-by-Objectives (MBO) is a popular technique which addresses both of these approaches. There is considerable debate, however, over just how desirable MBO systems are in R&D organizations. This study examines an earlier system dynamics simulation of MBO in an R&D setting performed by Poziomek, Rice, and Anderson, and suggests an alternative approach to MBO which stresses the nonevaluative contributions an MBO system can make to the researcher. The results of applying this alternative approach to MBO to a simulated R&D setting results in a substantial increase in productivity and the maintenance of social harmony within the group.